Court junks pleas of dera chief, doc in castration case

Dismissing two applications, the CBI Special Judicial Magistrate, Haryana, has ruled that Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and his co-accused in the castration case cannot use “unrelied” documents during cross-examination to challenge CBI witnesses.

Not a single witness examined completely

Applications are not maintainable… After charges were framed on Aug 3, 2018, not even a single prosecution witness has been examined completely so far. — Anil Kumar Yadav, Special judicial magistrate

The “unrelied” documents include statements recorded by the CBI under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) from witnesses not relied upon by the prosecution.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the CBI Special Judicial Magistrate’s court in Panchkula to reconsider the accused’s applications, filed in 2019, in light of principles outlined in its December 20, 2024, order.

Counsel for the dera chief, Amar D Kamra, argued before the CBI Special Judicial Magistrate that the allegations in the FIR concerned the mass castration of devotees at the dera chief’s behest. However, the CBI included in its final report only the statements of witnesses supporting its case. Kamra, along with co-accused Dr Pankaj Garg, stated that while the chargesheet included 118 witness statements, only 15 were provided to them, including six of alleged victims.

The accused claimed they needed 87 of the remaining 103 statements to disprove the CBI’s version. The CBI opposed their request.

Special Judicial Magistrate Anil Kumar Yadav noted that the accused sought to challenge prosecution witness 1 and prosecution witness 2 using statements from 87 witnesses not relied upon by the CBI. He emphasised that Section 162 of the CrPC imposed an absolute bar on using such statements for this purpose.

The judge also pointed out that the accused had filed similar applications twice before, stating, “...applications are not maintainable which appear to have been moved to cause a delay, and to a great extent, the accused have been successful in causing a delay by moving these applications. After charges were framed on August 3, 2018, not even a single prosecution witness has been examined completely so far, even after over six years.”

He further stated in his order dated January 16, “Thus, the inordinate delay has been caused in the trial of this case, which undoubtedly erodes the faith of common people in the efficacy of law, which is detrimental to the principle of the rule of law.”

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered an FIR in the case on December 23, 2014, following allegations in a writ petition that approximately 400 men were castrated at the dera chief’s behest. The CBI’s investigation identified Dr Garg as one of the doctors who performed castration surgeries on the complainant and other devotees. A chargesheet was filed on February 1, 2018, accusing the dera chief and two doctors of causing grievous injury, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.