Police to probe cases of dera’s ‘missing’

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

In fresh trouble for Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa SP Ashwin Shenvim today constituted an SIT (special investigating team) to probe complaints of kin of 25 persons gone missing from the dera. The team would be monitored by DSP (Headquarters) Vijay Kakkar.

“At least 20 complainants have approached us since August 25, when dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim was convicted of rape, alleging that their relatives had vanished from the dera. Some suspect they may have been murdered. Also, there has been no headway in 11 FIRs registered between 2011 and 2017 regarding persons who went missing from the dera. We have complaints from 25 persons in this regard,” Shenvi told The Tribune.

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Veena Rani (32) of Tohana in Fatehabad district went missing from the dera on July 26, 2016, Priyanka (26) of Barwala in Hisar, on May 29, 2011, Santosh aka Lali (36) of Bhirdana village in Fatehabad on April 24, 2011, and Renu (22) of Charkhi Dadri in 2009. Similarly Satpal Singh (32) of Mansa in Punjab has been missing since May 17, 2013, Arjun (21) from Kaithal since July 6, 2014, and Shish Pal (17) of Yamunanagar since August 3, 2014. “The police will question the dera officials. If necessary, the jailed dera chief may also be questioned to trace these persons,” said Shenvi.

Lekh Ram Dhot, a senior advocate from Sirsa, claimed that the number of those missing could be much higher. “The police did not dare to investigate crimes committed inside the dera till Ram Rahim was at the helm. In February 2010, when the CBI booked Ram Rahim for the murder of the sect’s former manager Faqir Chand, his followers went on the rampage, torching buses in Punjab and Haryana. After that, the police did not entertain complaints of families whose kin vanished from the dera,” he said.

The lawyer demanded that the police should reopen cases regarding unidentified bodies found in Sirsa and its neighbouring areas in the past two decades.