Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim moves court, seeks CBI probe into sacrilege cases
Chandigarh, April 9
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today put Punjab on notice with regard to a petition filed by Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim for transferring the investigation of two FIRs registered in 2015 along with any other sacrilege cases to the CBI.
Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj of the high court also directed the issuance of a seven-day prior notice in case the petitioner was sought to be implicated in any of these cases. The Bench also fixed the case for further hearing on May 21.
As the matter came up for preliminary hearing, Justice Bhardwaj’s Bench was told that initially three FIRs in the matter had been transferred by Punjab to the premier investigating agency in 2015. Thereafter, the government withdrew the consent in 2018. The CBI subsequently filed a closure report regarding the three FIRs in 2019.
But the state police were now in a totally illegal, arbitrary and mala fide manner trying to implicate the petitioner in two of the FIRs because of the upcoming elections. It was also alleged that the petitioner or his associates/senior dera functionaries were not implicated in the challans presented in the FIRs.
It was argued that the exercise was being carried out deliberately after the high court had referred the matter regarding the three FIRs to a larger Bench and stayed the proceedings of the trial court .
“The purpose of investigation is to gather evidence and then reach a logical conclusion regarding the nature of offence and the persons involved in the commission of an offence. However, a perusal of the record of the instant investigation reveals that the same is being undertaken with the sole motive of implicating the petitioner and other key managerial personnel of the dera in order to achieve the objective. The evidences are being fabricated to arrive at a predetermined objective of the investigation,” the petitioner added.
After hearing senior advocates Chetan Mittal and Randeep S Rai along with counsel Gautam Dutt among others, Justice Bhardwaj issued notice of motion and passed the interim direction.
