High Court dismisses Dera followers' plea alleging replacement of Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim with 'dummy person'

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, July 4

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by “staunch followers” of Dera Sacha Sauda alleging the replacement of Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh with a “dummy person”.

In the petition filed before the high court against the state of Haryana and other respondents, Ashok Kumar and 18 other petitioners had sought directions to “verify the authenticity of the Dera chief”.

Directions have also been sought to the state and other respondents to conduct a fair and impartial inquiry into the matter as the “dummy person” in collusion with some others was deeply hurting the religious sentiments of the petitioners and other followers.

The petitioners alleged that they came to know through unverified sources that the original Dera chief had been kidnapped to Udaipur, Rajasthan, and now they were planning to replace the dummy person with the original. 

It was added that the petitioners as well as other followers noticed various changes in the figure, personality etc, of the Dera chief. His height had increased by an inch, the length of his fingers and size of the feet too had increased, it was said.

A perusal of the videos and photographs published by the alleged Dera chief/dummy person during the present parole period revealed that his face and hands had a makeover or masking that changed from video to video.

Moreover, during a meeting with the villagers, the alleged Dera chief/dummy person failed to recognise his old friends.

According to the petitioners, the Dera chief was known for his bold and clear statements. But during the present parole period, the alleged Dera chief/dummy person contradicted his earlier statements.