Faridkot, December 9
The special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police, probing the sacrilege incidents, will go to the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa on Friday to question sect chairperson Vipassana Insan and vice-chairman Dr PR Nain.
Surinder Pal Singh Parmar, head of the SIT, said the probe team would visit Sirsa to question both dera office-bearers as they had failed to appear before the SIT even after repeated summons.
After the two were summoned last month, Vipassana had failed to respond, while Nain expressed helplessness in appearing before the SIT claiming he was suffering from dengue.
Nain had recently approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the SIT. Parmar said the SIT was visiting Sirsa owing to Nain’s “illness”. Earlier, the SIT had summoned both on November 26 and December 3. The SIT had taken a decision to question Vipassana and Nain after dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh denied his involvement in the sacrilege incidents.
During his questioning by the SIT at the Sunaria Jail in Rohtak last month, the dera chief had claimed he had no role in the functioning or decision-making of the dera. He had claimed his role was confined to doing ‘satsang’ for the purpose of preaching dera’s ideology, said Parmar.
On July 6, 2019, the dera chief was named as accused in the sacrilege incidents. Though the SIT had got the production warrants of the dera head to bring him from the Rohtak jail to Faridkot for questioning, as per the directions of the High Court, instead of bringing him here, the SIT had gone to the jail for questioning. — TNS
Punjab Police SIT to quiz 2 Dera Sacha Sauda functionaries today
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