SC paves way for trial in sacrilege cases against Dera chief Ram Rahim
The Supreme Court on Friday paved way for the trial of the 2015 sacrilege cases involving Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh as it lifted the stay ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on his trial.
A Bench led by Justices B R Gavai and K V Vishwanathan asked the Dera Sacha Sauda chief to respond to the Punjab government’s petition against the high court’s order and posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks, saying it required scrutiny.
The order came after advocate general of Punjab Gurminder Singh urged the top court to vacate the high court order which stayed the trial in the three cases registered at Bajakhana Police Station in Faridkot in Punjab.
On February 28, 2023, the Supreme Court ordered shifting the trial in these cases against Ram Rahim and seven others in connection with the 2015 Bargari Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege from a court in Faridkot to Chandigarh in view of a heightened threat to their lives.
It had allowed the petition filed by the accused to transfer the trial out of Punjab after it was pointed out that Pardeep Singh Kataria, alias Raju Dhodhi—a Dera follower and an accused in the sacrilege cases—was killed in Faridkot in November 2022.
Kataria was on bail when he was killed by unidentified assailants.
The Dera Sacha Sauda chief had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging a September 2018 notification of the state government withdrawing the cases from the CBI and sought a direction to the central probe agency to investigate.
On March 11, 2024, the high court referred the matter to a larger bench to determine if the consent by the state government for CBI probe can be withdrawn at a later stage.
“Since the issues are being referred for consideration by a larger bench, it is deemed appropriate to issue an interim direction, to balance the equities. Hence, further proceedings before the trial court against the petitioner (Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh), in the above said sacrilege cases, shall remain stayed till further orders,” the HC said.
Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year sentence awarded to him in 2017 for allegedly raping two of his disciples. The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 of the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago.
Lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail, he was recently given a 20-day parole by the Haryana government. However, he was restrained from either taking part in election-related activities or leaving the jurisdiction of Haryana during this period.
