India News | Dera Sacha Sauda Head Not to Be Taken to Faridkot : HC

Chandigarh, Oct 28 (PTI) The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday ordered that Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh will not be taken to Faridkot in pursuance of a production warrant.

The single bench of Justice Manoj Bajaj also asked the Punjab Police that it can question the dera head in Rohtak's Sunaria jail over the 2015 desecration case.

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Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is lodged in the Rohtak since his conviction in a rape case.

A court in Punjab's Faridkot on Monday had issued a production warrant against him in the 2015 desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. He was to be produced before the court on October 29.

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"The court today ordered that the petitioner will not be taken to the Faridkot court," said Ram Rahim's counsel Kanika Ahuja.

The court also said if the Punjab Police wanted to investigate the case, it can go to the Sunaria jail to question the petitioner.

The court's directions came after the Dera Sacha Sauda chief through his counsel had moved the high court against the production warrant.

Ahuja said a petition was filed in the court seeking quashing of the production warrant.

A second plea was also submitted to seek anticipatory bail in the event of his arrest in the FIR No. 63, pertaining to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara in 2015.

The counsel of the petitioner argued that the production warrant could not be issued for arresting him while contending that the application filed by the Punjab Police special investigation team for the production warrant was "not only illegal, but politically motivated" keeping in view of the Assembly elections in Punjab.

Three more dera committee members Harsh Dhuri, Sandeep Bareta and Pardeep Kler had also been booked in this case but they are absconding.

In February this year, the CBI on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had handed over the documents and files related to the 2015 incidents to the Punjab Police SIT.

The previous SAD-BJP government had handed over the three cases--theft of a ''bir'' (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara; putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala; and torn pages of the holy book found at Bargari--to the CBI for probe.

The Punjab government had handed over the probe to an SIT of the state police in September 2018 after the state Assembly passed a resolution withdrawing consent to the CBI to investigate these cases, noting lack of progress in the investigation.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)