CBI REGISTERS FIR AGAINST DERA SACHA SAUDA CHIEF GURMEET RAM RAHIM SINGH

The organisation which has set a benchmark with several Guinness World Records in humanitarian, environmental and various other non-profit initiatives is in limelight for all wrong reasons. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday registered FIR for criminal conspiracy case against the Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, after claims 400 male followers were forcibly castrated at his Sirsa ashram.

   The Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered a CBI probe in the matter. Petition was filed in the High Court in 2012 by a follower of Dera demanding a CBI investigation and compensation for his alleged castration in 2000.

  The Petitioner Hansraj Chauhan has purported that around 400 male devotees, were castrated at the Dera after its head falsely claimed that the castration would lead to “realisation of God through him”.

 The Dera chief has been charged under sections 417, 326, 506 and 120B of The Indian Penal Code. The HC had earlier ordered medical examination of petitioner Chauhan from the government multi-speciality hospital which found that he has been castrated.

The state government has affirmed that it has recorded the statements of seven persons associated with the Dera head and all of them have confirmed that they have been castrated.

The registration of case comes within three days after a team of CBI sleuths headed by Inspector took into possession the documents related to probe done by Haryana police into the allegations of castration leveled by Chauhan.

According to reports, CBI has treated the petition filed by victim Dera follower Hans Raj Chauhan in the Punjab and Haryana High Court Chandigarh as complaint.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim is also facing trial in connection with cases of murders of a journalist and a dera follower and sexual exploitation of his women disciples in Panchkula's CBI court.

The Dera chief, who is going to hit the big screen next month with his film 'Messenger of God', has already courted controversy with Sikh organisations, including Akal Takht, seeking a ban on it.