Honeypreet arrested, to be produced in court on Wednesday

Chandigarh:Fugitive Honeypreet Insan, a close aide of jailed Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was arrested on Tuesday and will be produced in a trial court of Haryana's Panchkula on Wednesday, police said.

She was detained by the Punjab Police from the Zirkapur-Patiala highway and later handed over to the Haryana Police, a senior police official told IANS.

The police had been on her trail for nearly a month and raids were conducted in Nepal, Rajasthan, Bihar and Haryana.

Confirming her arrest, Panchkula Police Commissioner A.S. Chawla told reporters that Honeypreet would be produced in a court on Wednesday.

A court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, on September 25 issued arrest warrants against top Dera functionaries -- Honeypreet, Aditya Insan and Pawan Insan.

All three were booked by the Haryana Police on charges of sedition, inciting violence and being involved in a conspiracy to help the Dera chief escape after his conviction by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on August 25 on two counts of rape of female disciples in 1999.

The Haryana Police had sounded an international alert against all three.

Honeypreet, in her mid-30s, has been the closest aide of Ram Rahim since 2009.

Honeypreet, who has been claiming to be Ram Rahim's "adopted daughter", starred as the main heroine in five films he directed, produced and acted in over a period of three years.

Ram Rahim has been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of over Rs 30 lakh.

His rape conviction led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa in Haryana, leaving 38 people dead and 264 injured. Isolated incidents of violence were also reported from Delhi and several other places in Punjab.