First Sirsa dera violence case falls flat

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 30

In a blow to the Haryana Police, the first dera violence case (FIR 415) has fallen flat in the Panchkula court, with District and Sessions Judge Ritu Tagore on Monday acquitting six persons charged with rioting and snatching at Hafed Chowk — the epicentre of violence  on August 25 last year after the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Those acquitted are Hoshiyar Singh from Kaithal district, Ram Kishan from Karnal, Ravi Kumar from Muktsar district, and Sanga Singh, Gyani Ram and Tarsem from Sangrur district.

Defence counsel RS Chauhan said the prosecution failed to prove the charges against his clients against whom a case was filed on August 30 under Sections 148 (rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 379-A (snatching) of the IPC on a complaint by a mediaperson.

Meanwhile, Sacha Sauda spokesperson Aditya Insan, the main accused, remains at large. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had some months ago pulled up the Haryana Police for its failure to arrest him, observing that the general perception was that when the police “want to” arrest a person, “they will.” It asked whether Aditya Insan was “such a trained criminal that he has disappeared…like Shaktiman”. 

The SIT has now started the process to declare him a ‘proclaimed offender’. The Haryana Government has announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head.