Panchkula: Right after a special CBI Court held Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim guilty in two rape cases on Friday, his followers and security guards started acting on a pre-planned escape plan for the godman.
According to an FIR filed by the Haryana Police in Panchkula, the Dera followers had a foolproof plan of running over the police personnel in-charge of the godman and taking him away. However, they didn’t anticipate that more officers would turn up to help the trapped Haryana Police personnel, which ultimately foiled the escape plan.
The grand conspiracy had been hatched much in advance to whisk the Dera chief in the event of an adverse verdict. CNN-News18 has pieced together the details of the escape plan.
Minutes after the CBI Judge pronounced Gurmeet Ram Rahim guilty, the plan kicked into action. The judge then ordered him to be shifted to Rohtak for the sentencing on August 28.
As the Haryana Police started moving Ram Rahim in a Scorpio car and was about to reach a police barrier in the court complex, with him sitting in between security personnel, a white Endeavour car (part of the Dera chief’s cavalcade), equipped with electronic signal jamming systems came revving up from behind.
The Dera car managed to block the Scorpio and cut it off from the police blockade ahead. Six men in black Haryana Police commando uniforms jumped out, two from each of the doors, while the driver remained seated. Interestingly, these guards are officers of the Haryana Police force.
The guards demanded that their ‘Pitaji’ be released. “We tried to prevent Ram Rahim’s guards from pulling him out of our car at which they started yelling ‘We will take Pitaji with us’ and asked their driver to run it over the police officers," narrates one of the police officers tasked with transporting Ram Rahim to Rohtak.
The officers now had two tasks at hand, that of keeping the rape convict godman secure and to keep themselves alive. Ram Rahim’s guards kept shouting at their SUV driver to reverse the car and run it over the personnel. The officers who were witness to the entire incident have noted the entire incident in FIR number 336 registered at Sector 5 Police Station, Panchkula on August 26.
Sensing that something’s not going right, more personnel rushed to the spot near the police barrier, who finally managed to overpower the Dera guards and take them in custody.
Five of the seven Dera guards — Ajay, Ram Singh, Balwan Singh, Krishan Das and driver Vijay Singh — are Haryana Police personnel.
All seven have been booked under Section 25 of the Arms Act and Sections 148, 149, 224, 307 and 511 of the IPC for rioting, armed with deadly weapons, unlawful assembly with common object, resistance by a person to his lawful apprehension, attempt to murder and committing offence punishable with life imprisonment.
Moreover, an automatic machine gun, two magazines tied with a tape, a Mauser Pistol with 22 rounds and other ammunitions were recovered from the Dera car. Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s guards could not explain the presence of these weapons or produce any license or documentation against them.
Haryana IGP KK Rao said, “We were in-charge of securing the civil secretariat, where the Baba’s punishment was to be decided and where he had to be taken thereafter. When DCP Sumit was bringing Ram Rahim to the court, the Dera chief already had the escape plan in place. When the court pronounced him guilty, he asked for a red bag which was the signal for his followers. The red bag signal was to create chaos, which started immediately after the bag was taken out of the car."
The IGP added, “Two or three tear gas shots were fired and we understood that all of these movements had some purpose and meaning to it."
Rao further narrated, “You must have seen Ram Rahim and a girl standing outside a car even when they had no purpose to stay there. They were waiting to waste some time before entering the car so that the information that they are moving from the court complex, could reach his followers."
The police then changed the car that Gurmeet Ram Rahim was supposed to sit in and was given DCP Sumit's Scorpio car. He was then being moved towards the helipad for his journey to the Rohtak Jail.
While this shifting was still underway, Ram Rahim’s commandos surrounded him and argued with other police officers.
Rao said the police did not want to get into a situation where they might have to open fire as it was not possible to distinguish between the Haryana Police and police officers serving the Dera chief. “From either side, it would have been our officers, who would have got hurt in the firing," Rao said.
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