2015 sacrilege cases: SIT files 2nd status report on Ram Rahim’s questioning in HC

Faridkot Two days after questioning Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim for the second time in five weeks, Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 sacrilege cases on Thursday submitted a second status report on his interrogation in the Punjab and Haryana high court.

The SIT, which inspector general of police (IGP) Surinder Pal Singh Parmar is heading, submitted the status report by way of an affidavit. An interrogation report, including the copies of the questionnaires as well as replies, of Ram Rahim and dera vice-chairperson Prithvi Raj Nain, was filed along with the affidavit.

On December 14, the SIT had asked 90 questions from the sect head during his grilling for six hours at the Sunaria jail in Rohtak over his alleged role in the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot district on June 1, 2015, and the subsequent sacrilege incidents.

An official said the SIT had filed the report in the high court so that it can be taken up on Friday, during the hearing on Ram Rahim’s pleas seeking anticipatory bail and the quashing of production warrants that a Faridkot court has issued.

Sources said that the SIT has claimed in the report that Ram Rahim, again, was evasive and did not cooperate with the probe team so his custodial interrogation is required. The SIT is likely to push for bringing him to Punjab on production warrants for custodial interrogation.

The move is also seen as an attempt by the SIT to counter Ram Rahim’s another plea demanding that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be asked to continue probe into the 2015 sacrilege cases and that the SIT probe be stayed.

The SIT had prepared a new set of questions for Ram Rahim on the basis of 200 queries asked from Nain and documents collected from the dera headquarters in Sirsa.

On November 8, the SIT had asked 114 questions from Ram Rahim during his 7-hour grilling in the jail and submitted a 65-page status report in the high court four days later. In the report, the SIT claimed that the conspiracy of desecration of Sikh scriptures was hatched at the sect’s administrative block in Sirsa and that the followers never acted without the permission of Ram Rahim.