Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim convicted, held in journalist murder case
New Delhi : Remember Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who has been convicted of rape charges and currently undergoing 20-year-imprisonment. Yes, yet again, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief has been convicted of murder and criminal conspiracy. A CBI court at Panchkula, on 11 January 2019, convicted Ram Rahim and his followers, Krishan Lal, Nirmal Singh and Kuldeep Singh, on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy. All four were charged with hatching the conspiracy and murdering Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chattarpati, 51, in 2002.
CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh declared the verdict and held all four accused guilty. While Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is already undergoing a 20-year-imprisonment on rape charges, the three convicts were also taken into custody after the verdict. The duration of punishment will be pronounced on January 17.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh appeared in today’s court proceedings through video conferencing. He is currently lodged in Sunaria jail at Rohtak. The three other convicts will now be taken to Ambala jail.
In May 2002, Ram Chander Chattarpati had published a news item in his newspaper, “Poora Sacha”, about an anonymous complaint from a sadhvi about the sexual exploitation of sadhvis at Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa.
Following this, Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh shot at him on October 24, 2002 evening. Krishan Lal’s licensed .32 bore revolver was used in the crime.
Journalist Chattarpati was rushed to a government hospital in Sirsa, from where he was referred to PGIMS, Rohtak. He was then shifted to Apollo hospital, New Delhi on November 8, 2002. The journalist, however, succumbed to injuries on November 21, 2002.
While Kuldeep Singh was arrested from the spot, immediately after Chattarpati was shot at, Nirmal Singh was arrested on October 26, 2002. Police had recovered a walkie-talkie belonging to Dera Sacha Sauda and Krishan Lal’s .32 bore revolver from his possession.
Sources report that the Haryana Police has filed a chargesheet in the case way back on December 5, 2002, but did not mentioned the name of Dera Chief. The police investigation was not satisfactory for Chattarpati’s son Anshul Chattarpati and he approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court that transferred the case to CBI on November 10, 2003.
In the chargesheet, the CBI had indicted all the convicts. The chargesheet filed by the probe agency said that in its investigation they had managed to establish that the four accused, Baba Gurmeet Singh, Krishan Lal, Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal, all of who entered into a criminal conspiracy to kill Ram Chander Chattarpati of the newspaper “Poora Sach” on or before October 23, 2002. Kuldeep and Nirmal shot at Chattarpati at his residence in the evening of October 24 using a revolver provided by Krishan Lal. The journalist later succumbed to his gunshot injuries.
For now, the four accused have been charged under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code. Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh also committed substantive offences under Section 302 (murder) of IPC. Nirmal Singh also committed offences under Section 25/27 Arms Act”.
