By IANS
Ambala (Haryana) : A special CBI court here Thursday extended till Oct 15 Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh’s bail in two cases of murder and one of rape.
There was unprecedented security at the court premises and around as a crowd of over 100,000 Dera followers laid virtual siege on the city to see what the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge would say about their chief – charged with conspiracy in the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh in July 2002 and Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chandra Chhatrapati in November 2001.
The Dera chief has also been accused of raping a “sadhvi” (female follower) inside his sprawling and fortified sect campus near Sirsa town in Haryana.
He was granted bail in all three cases by the judge after furnishing a surety bond of Rs.500,000 each and has been asked to approach the district and sessions court here to seek regular bail.
The controversial Dera chief appeared before a court for the first time as thousands of his followers – defying Section 144 that bans the assembly of five or more people at one place – chanted slogans and hymns in his support at an open ground about a kilometre from the campus.
Tension built up here as an estimated 125,000 sect followers descended on this Haryana town, about 45 km from Chandigarh, forcing the closure of several schools and colleges.
The sect chief, whose earlier bail had ended Thursday, arrived at the court complex around 10 a.m. in a cavalcade of cars, including those of Haryana police and private security. He was sitting on the front seat of his bullet-proof Lexus luxury SUV, dressed in his traditional white robes and headgear.
Some of his supporters were able to reach the court premises despite the security cordon.
The interim bail granted to him by the court earlier ended Thursday and the sect chief was to seek regular bail from the court here.
Police swarmed the town — so did followers of Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh. The Haryana government left nothing to chance in case the court order went against him.
Haryana Director General of Police Ranjiv Dalal said the police had been deployed in adequate numbers to keep the situation under control.
“We have requisitioned police personnel and officers from all over the state to prepare for this situation. I hope everything will remain peaceful.”
The sect chief enjoys Z-plus security provided to him by the Haryana Police after he was involved in a controversy with Sikhs for portraying himself like the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh.
He faces a case of hurting religious sentiments of Sikhs in Bathinda town of Punjab. The Punjab Police have seized his passport and questioned him five times.
The sect chief made a tour of most parts of Haryana, where he has many followers, in the week preceding his court appearance in an apparent attempt to get the maximum number of followers to this city for a show of strength.