Punjab & Haryana HC dismisses plea alleging Dera chief has been replaced with a 'dummy'

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday dismissed a petition claiming that Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is convicted of rape and currently is out on parole, has been replaced with a ''dummy''. As informed by Advocate Jatinder, the plea demanding to prove the authenticity of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief was dismissed on the grounds of lacking merit. 

The court further also called the plea ''frivolous''. Notably, the petition was filed recently before the high court and the State of Haryana was among the respondents. In the petition, 19 petitioners including one named Ashok Kumar, claiming to be "staunch followers" of the sect, demanded a direction from the court to verify the authenticity of the Dera chief. They had alleged that he was replaced with a 'dummy person' and the actual person has been not brought out. 

Stating that this has "deeply hurt the religious sentiments" of all the followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, the petition further noted that they have witnessed several changes in Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after he was released further adding that such changes are not possible after the age of 50. 

...body height has increased by one inch, length of the fingers of hands increased, size of feet increased, size of eyes reduced and their shape has also changed, the width of shoulders reduced, teeth arrangement has changed, change in voice and body language,'' they claimed. 

In addition to that, the petitioners also said that the bare perusal of the videos and photographs published by the alleged Dera chief/dummy person during the present parole period clearly reveals that his face and hands have a makeover or masking and that changes in every video. An investigation has been demanded by an independent probe agency in the matter. 

Religious leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is out on a month-long parole

The 54-year-old Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who is presently serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, the Dera's headquarters, came out of prison on month-long parole last month. Following that, he paid a visit to the Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram, Barnawa, in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

Notably, he was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017. He was also convicted of hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager, in 2002. In addition to that, the Dera chief and three others were convicted in 2019 of murdering a journalist over 16 years ago.

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