Witness in castration case against Ram Rahim fails to depose

A prime witness in the castration case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh could not depose in a Panchkula court for want of cooperation from the US Justice Department. The witness resides in the US.

The CBI, through its Senior Public Prosecutor Jaswinder Kumar Bhatti, today submitted documents of communication between the CBI and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the US Department of Justice before the CBI Special Magistrate, Anil Kumar Yadav. The CBI, despite sending reminders by the MHA, received no response from the US Department of Justice.

Counsel for the witness, Navkiran Singh, submitted that the CBI was not taking an interest in getting the testimony of the witness recorded through video conferencing, despite the fact that the order of this court permitting him to get his testimony recorded through video conferencing has been upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and by the Supreme Court of India.

“The manner in which the CBI has produced the recorder and visualiser today, itself shows a lackadaisical attitude of its officers in such a sensitive case, in which inordinate delay has already been caused in concluding prosecution evidence. It is pertinent to mention that in this case, there are 92 cited prosecution witnesses and only 12 witnesses have been recorded so far,” he said.

The counsel for the witness further argued that when the witness himself approached this court to have his testimony recorded by video conferencing, the question of effecting service of summons on the witness through the US Department of Justice did not arise.

After the arguments, the judge ruled, “…CBI is directed to again discuss the matter with higher authorities as to whether in such a case evidence of witness, who is an Indian citizen residing in USA and willing to depose through video conferencing, can be recorded without assistance of the US Department of Justice or by taking assistance of the Indian Embassy in the USA and submit the reply…”

It was on the witness’ petition that the high court, in December 2014, had directed the CBI to investigate the allegations of mass castration of dera followers in the name of realisation of God.