Punjab gives nod to prosecute Ram Rahim in sacrilege cases

The Punjab government has granted sanction to prosecute jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2015 sacrilege incidents that had triggered protests and left two agitators dead in police firing, official sources said on Tuesday.

The move came days after the Supreme Court vacated the stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the trial in three sacrilege cases.

The top court on October 18 had passed the order on a plea of the Punjab government challenging the order of the high court, which had stayed the trial in the three cases registered in Faridkot.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who holds the Home portfolio, approved the sanction on Monday evening, the sources said.

The chief of the Sirsa-headquartered sect is serving a 20-year sentence given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.

Singh, who is serving sentence in Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak district, was granted a 20-day parole on October 2.

The sacrilege incidents related to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of the Guru Ganth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari, had taken place in Faridkot in Punjab in 2015.

These incidents had led to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot. In the police firing at anti-sacrilege protesters in October 2015, two persons were killed in Behbal Kalan while some persons were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.

Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) led by Additional Director General of Police SPS Parmar in 2022 had indicted the Dera Sacha Sauda chief as one of the main conspirators in the three sacrilege incidents.

The state government's sanction is required to prosecute anyone under Section 295 A (hurting religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The high court in March this year had stayed the trial against the Dera chief in sacrilege cases after he challenged the validity of a September 6, 2018 notification of the state government withdrawing the consent given to the CBI to probe these cases and sought a direction to the central probe agency to investigate.

In 2015, the then SAD-BJP government had handed over the three sacrilege cases to the CBI for probe.

Later, the previous Congress-led Punjab government, however, had handed over the probe to a special investigation team of the Punjab 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.

In the monsoon session of the Punjab assembly last month, CM Mann had said that his government was firmly committed to ensuring exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Congress had questioned the state government for the delay in granting prosecution sanction against Singh in the sacrilege cases.