Ram Rahim's Sacrilege Trial: Punjab Govt To File SLP In SC Against High Court's Stay Order

The Punjab Government is getting ready to submit a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court to quash the Ruling of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to Stop Proceedings before a Trial Court in Three Related Cases of Bargari Sacrilege Against Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the head of Dera Sacha Sauda located in Sirsa. Further proceedings against the head of Sirsa Dera were halted by the High Court on March 11 while it heard a plea submitted by Ram Rahim in the sacrilege charges of 2015. Ram Rahim filed a request before the high court on December 13, 2021, asking the CBI to Carry out further Investigation into three 2015 Sacrilege FIRs. The plea also challenged the Punjab government's Announcement of September 6, 2018, under which the CBI's Consent to probe these FIRs of sacrilege charges was withdrawn.

On the condition of anonymity, a member of the special investigation team (SIT) investigating the 2015 sacrilege cases stated that the team is prepared to file an SLP in the Supreme Court challenging the high court's stay on the trial in three interconnected Bargari sacrilege cases. "We are consulting with the legal experts and soon we will move the Supreme Court," said the spokesperson.

In February of last year, the Supreme Court moved the Trial of Ram Rahim and seven followers in three Interconnected cases of Bargari Sacrilege from Faridkot to Chandigarh. The move came when dera follower Pardeep Singh Kataria, an accused in the 2015 Bargari Sacrilege Case, was shot dead on November 10, 2022, and other suspects moved to the Supreme Court demanding transfer of the case. On June 1, 2015, an "FIR" (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib was taken from the village Gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala.

The following day, an FIR was filed. An FIR was filed in 2015 after three Offensive Posters threatening sacrilege were put up in the villages of Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala. When Ripped pages of the "FIR" were discovered strewn in front of a gurdwara in the nearby village of Bargari on October 12, 2015, the state was rocked and two Sikh protestors were shot and killed. The Punjab Police Special Investigation Team discovered that the Sikh scripture desecration plot originated from the Dera Sacha Sauda Administrative block in Sirsa and that the followers never took any action without the approval of the sect's leader, Ram Rahim. In all three cases, the SIT has filed Chargesheets against Ram Rahim, designating him as the "Main Conspirator."

According to the SIT looking into the sacrilege instances, Bareta, Kler, and Dhuri gave the district dera committee members the orders to carry out the sacrilege at Bargari, Moga, and Gurusar. The SIT stated that the trio had met Mohinder Pal Bittu, a dera devotee who was slain in Nabha jail, and had given him Instructions for Robbery and Desecration.

Author: 
Aarya Kadam (News Writer) is a final-year BBA student and a creative writer with a passion for current affairs and legal Judgments.