Posted by Unknown on 02:15 with No comments
- Rohan Agarwal (rohannvrs@gmail.com)
Entire north India felt the horror, as the rape conviction and sentencing to 20 years’ jail of “godman” Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh led to massive protests in northern parts of India. The rape allegations against Gurmeet Ram Rahim were first reported back in 2002, when a Dera sadhvi wrote an anonymous letter to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying she was raped by the Dera chief.
The Punjab and Haryana high court directed the CBI to register a sexual exploitation case against the Dera chief in 2002. The CBI then registered a case against Ram Rahim, based on the sadhvi’s letter.
In the letter, the sadhvi also accused Gurmeet Ram Rahim of raping several other female followers inside the Dera campus. 18 sadhvis were questioned and two of them levelled allegations of rape against the spiritual leader. One sadhvi said that her rape was "justified" on the grounds that it would "purify" her.
The trial against Gurmeet Ram Rahim commenced in 2008 and on September 6, 2008, he was charged under Section 376 (rape) and Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Dera chief has consistently called the charges false and baseless and has told the court that he is "not capable of" engaging in physical relation
However, the self proclaimed messenger of god was found guilty and will serve 20 years in the prison. But the major setback of the case was, when group of various Dera supporters destroyed public property in northern states like Delhi, Haryana, Punjab. This violent protest took away several innocent lives.
After investigation, Haryana police has registered cases of sedition and attempt to trigger violence against Ram Rahim’s adopted daughter Honeypreet singh Insaan
But the biggest failure of Haryana government was highlighted by the fact that Ram rahim’s daughter and accused in charges of sedition Honeypreet was able to successfully dodge Haryana police for over a month. Moreover first one to reach Honeypreet was a media person but not the police which has raised questions on the intentions of the Haryana government.
0 comments:
Post a Comment