Sacrilege case: Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim not to be brought to Punjab

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh will not be brought to Punjab in connection with a sacrilege case. Three days after a Faridkot court issued his production warrant in the matter, the state of Punjab today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court the police would go and interrogate/investigate the dera chief in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail.

‘SIT plea motivated’

In his plea, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has argued the SIT moving a plea for his production warrant is not only illegal but politically motivated as it seemed to have been done keeping in view the upcoming Assembly elections

The court was hearing the dera chief’s plea seeking bail in case of his arrest. Taking up the matter, Justice Manoj Bajaj of the High Court issued notice of motion to the state. The state was represented

by Punjab Advocate-General APS Deol and Deputy

Advocate-General Ramdeep Partap Singh.

In his plea, the dera chief through senior counsel Vinod Ghai and advocate Kanika Ahuja has sought directions to the arresting officer to release him on bail forthwith in event of his arrest in connection with FIR No. 63, registered on June 2, 2015, under Sections 380 and 295-A of the IPC at the Bajakhana police station in Faridkot district.

Among other things, the dera chief argued the special investigating team looking into the matter moved an application for his production warrant “now with the change in the head of the state government”. This, he argued, was done belatedly after more than one year and four months.

“This application is not only illegal but politically motivated and apparently seems to have been moved keeping in view the coming Assembly election in the state of Punjab. There is no change in the circumstances and also no further evidence has apparently come forth before the investigating agency to change its stand and move the application now. This fact in itself is sufficient to show the biased and vindictive attitude of the investigating agency towards me,” the dera chief has submitted in his plea.

Referring to Section 267 of the CrPC, the dera chief added a warrant for producing a prisoner could only be issued for the limited purposes of answering a charge or giving evidence. It could not be issued for handing the prisoner’s custody to the investigating agency in the aid of an ongoing investigation.

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