Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda Chief along with 4 others, have been convicted today in the Ranjit Singh murder case by Special CBI Court judge Sushil Garg. He would now be heard on October 12 regarding the amount and extent of punishment.
The deceased- Ranjit Singh, who was one of the members of Dera’s influential 10-member committee, was shot dead by four gunmen on 10th July, 2002. Ram Rahim was of the apprehension that Ranjit Singh, was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter that alleged sexual exploitation of female followers in Dera and also hatched a conspiracy to kill him, as per the CBI charge sheet.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim is already serving sentence for the offence of rape of two of his disciples, and was also awarded life imprisonment for murdering a journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati. He is also facing trial in a case pertaining to the alleged castration of a number of Dera followers and now he has been convicted with the murder of his disciple, Ranjeet Singh.
On Tuesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed a plea filed by the son of Ranjit Singh seeking transfer of the murder trial against Ram Rahim Singh pending before the special CBI judge, Panchkula to another CBI court in Punjab, Haryana, or Chandigarh on the ground that the presiding judge who is conducting the trial was influenced by the accused through a CBI public prosecutor.
However, the plea was dismissed by the Bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan on the ground that the petitioner’s apprehensions weren’t reasonable and was only based upon surmises and conjectures.
