Haryana issues lookout notice against Dera chief aides

Chandigarh: The Haryana Police have issued 'lookout notice' against two close aides of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief convicted of rape, including a woman, police sources said on Friday.

The lookout notice has been issued against Ram Rahim's adopted daughter Honeypreet Kaur and Dera spokesman Aditya Insaan.

Police sources said raids were being conducted to arrest the two aides. The police issued the notice to prevent them from fleeing the country.

Kaur had accompanied the disgraced chief till the CBI special court in Panchkula on August 25, when he was convicted on two counts of rape.

Kaur had also accompanied Ram Rahim in the government helicopter from Panchkula to Rohtak after his conviction when he was being shifted to the prison near Rohtak.

She has not been seen after she left Rohtak on August 25 evening.

While Aditya Insaan was booked with four other Dera functionaries for sedition and inciting violence, Kaur has been named in the case related to a conspiracy to help the sect chief to escape from the court premises after his conviction.

Haryana's Inspector General K.K. Rao confirmed to the media that a plot had been hatched by top functionaries of the sect to help Ram Rahim escape from the court complex in Panchkula on August 25 if he was convicted for rape.

However, the swift action of some Haryana Police officers and paramilitary forces inside the court premises prevented the escape.

Police sources said the plan was to make the sect chief reach the place where thousands of his followers had assembled in Panchkula, about one km from the court complex.

Had the self-styled godman succeeded in hiding behind his followers, it would have been very difficult for the security forces to arrest him without bloodshed, the sources said.

The Haryana Police had, last week, arrested five of its own commandos, who were in the Z-plus security cover of the sect chief, and two private securitymen.

All were accused and booked for sedition and involvement in the conspiracy to help the sect chief escape.

All the five Haryana Police commandos have been dismissed from service for their involvement in the conspiracy. They were in the security of Ram Rahim for a number of years.

Kaur, who is in her mid-30s is considered closest to Ram Rahim, and has been his heroine in the five films that he has directed, produced and acted in, in the last two-three years.

Though both (Ram Rahim and Honeypreet) call themselves 'father-daughter', her former husband had accused both of having an illicit relationship.

Aditya Insaan, a former eye specialist from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has been the Dera spokesman for a number of years. Considered close to Ram Rahim, he has also gone underground since August 25.

The Haryana Police on Thursday arrested another aide of Ram Rahim, Surender Dhiman, for sedition and inciting violence.

Dhiman, a Dera functionary and journalist with its newspaper 'Sach Kahoon', surrendered before the police in Panchkula. He was taken into custody and presented before a local court which sent him on a seven-day police remand.

Dhiman, along with Aditya Insaan, was among the five people booked by the Haryana Police here last week for inciting violence.

A journalist had complained to the police that he saw the Dera functionaries inciting followers of the sect after the court convicted Ram Rahim of the rape of two female followers in 1999.

At least 38 people died and 264 were injured in large-scale violence by the Dera supporters after the August 25 verdict holding him guilty.

Ram Rahim was handed a 20-year jail sentence on August 28.