Ram Rahim to face trial for 2015 sacrilege, Punjab govt grants nod

The development follows the Supreme Court lifting the Punjab and Haryana High Court's stay on Dera Sacha Sauda head Ram Rahim Singh's trial in the 2015 sacrilege cases three days ago

Days after the Supreme Court lifted the stay on the 2015 sacrilege cases, the Punjab government, led by the Aam Aadmi Party, has granted permission to prosecute Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. This development paved the way for his trial in three related sacrilege cases which took place in Faridkot in 2015.

Along with Ram Rahim, three national committee members of the dera — Pardeep Kler, Harsh Dhuri, and Sandeep Bareta — are also set to face prosecution. However, Dhuri and Bareta remain absconding, while Kler was arrested earlier this year, reported Hindustan Times.

This move comes over two-and-a-half years after the Punjab Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by ADGP Surinder Pal Singh Parmar, filed a request for sanction to prosecute Ram Rahim under section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), for hurting religious sentiments. The state government’s approval is crucial for prosecuting under this section of the law.

 

The Punjab home department has now sanctioned prosecution under Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) against Ram Rahim, Kler, Dhuri, and Bareta. This relates to FIR-128, registered on October 12, 2015, after torn pages of a bir (a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib) were found near a gurdwara in Bargari village. Another sanction was issued for FIR-117, registered on September 25, 2015, regarding derogatory posters found near gurdwaras in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages.

The government has also greenlit the prosecution of seven dera followers — Sukhjinder Singh (alias Sunny), Nishan Singh, Ranjit Singh (alias Bhola), Shakti Singh, Narinder Kumar, Randeep Singh (alias Neela), and Baljit Singh — under Section 196 of the CrPC. This is in connection with FIR-63, registered on June 2, 2015, after a bir was stolen from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village.

Key conspirator admits Ram Rahim’s involvement
 

“Pardeep Kler was arrested on February 2024, and in his statement under Section 164 of CrPC, he admitted that dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was involved in all the sacrilege incidents during that period,” the official sanction order reads.

The order further states, “After reviewing the evidence, including the report submitted under Section 173 of CrPC and statements under Sections 161 and 164 of CrPC, I am satisfied that a prima facie case is established against the accused. The sanction is granted to prosecute them under Sections 295-A and 120-B of the IPC so that they can be tried for offences including theft, religious sacrilege, and conspiracy.”

 

SIT report links Ram Rahim to conspiracy

In April 2022, the SIT led by ADGP Parmar concluded that the sacrilege incidents were part of a conspiracy by dera followers, executed under Ram Rahim’s orders. The motive, as the SIT found, was revenge for an insult to dera followers by a Sikh preacher. During a religious congregation in March 2015, the preacher had asked dera followers to remove their lockets or leave, which infuriated the dera community. 

According to the SIT report, national committee members Bareta, Kler, and Dhuri viewed this as an act of sacrilege and plotted revenge. Instructions for the sacrilege acts in Bargari, Moga, and Gurusar were allegedly given to district dera members by these three, with Mohinder Pal Bittu (later killed in Nabha jail) orchestrating the theft and sacrilege.

In February 2023, the Supreme Court transferred the trial of Ram Rahim and seven other followers from Faridkot to Chandigarh, following the assassination of Pardeep Singh Kataria, an accused in the Bargari case.

The SIT is now expected to turn Kler into an approver, and the trial court has scheduled further proceedings for November 28. With the Supreme Court’s order and the government’s sanction, the trial against Ram Rahim and his co-accused will resume in Chandigarh court.