Janjivan Bureau / Chandigarh : Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar government providing VIP treatment to rapist Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in prison.
He was flown out of the court premises in a helicopter straight to the make shift Sonaria jail in Rohtak. His assistant has been allowed to stay with him. He was shifted to a regular prison only late in the evening. At the jail, he has been given a bottle of water on arrival. Sources say that he stayed silent all along and did not converse with anyone. There were no tantrums either, the source said.
The Dera Sacha Sauda chief, according to police sources, was provided with an air-conditioned room in the prison near Rohtak town, around 70 km from Delhi.
“From arranging a special helicopter to providing an air-conditioned room and helping in using facilities meant for police officers, the Khattar government is extending all help to the lawfully disgraced Dera chief even after his conviction in such a serious crime as rape. This is appalling,” a police source, who saw some of these things happen on Friday and Saturday, told .
A woman, Honeypreet, whom the Dera website describes as his daughter (not real daughter), was allowed to accompany him along with bags and suitcases when Ram Rahim, after being taken in custody was flown in a specially arranged helicopter from the police lines complex in Panchkula.
Even after being taken in custody, the Dera chief was shown full respect by a section of officers instead of being treated like a convicted criminal.
“A couple of senior officers, who tried to take the Dera chief to task and treat him like any other criminal after his conviction were physically assaulted by his (sect chief’s) security.
“One senior officer was slapped and other one was pushed in the presence of other top officers. Haryana Police had to detain his security for some time to take him in its custody following the conviction,” the police officer said.
The sect chief had openly announced support for the BJP in the 2014 elections. Millions of his followers in the region voted as per his diktat. He even went to cast his own vote.
The BJP, for the first time, came to power in Haryana on its own in the October 2014 assembly elections.
Panchkula town, adjoining here, where the CBI court announced the sect chief guilty, bore the brunt of the violence on Friday and resembled a war zone with scores of burnt vehicles and properties damaged or torched.
CBI special judge Jagdeep Singh held the Dera sect leader, who has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana, guilty of raping and sexually exploiting two female disciples in 2002.
