Honeypreet continues to elude embarrassed Haryana Police

Embarrassed by the fact that fugitive Honeypreet, a close aide of jailed Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, had emerged in Delhi and sought anticipatory transit bail from the Delhi High Court, the Haryana Police on Tuesday conducted raids in and around Delhi.

Haryana Police sources said one raid was carried out at a house in Delhi's Greater Kailash to arrest fugitive Honeypreet and Aditya Insan, both close aides of the disgraced sect chief. A couple of other places were also raided in and around the national capital but officials did not disclose details.

"Panchkula police came with an arrest warrant for Honeypreet at A-9, Greater Kailash Enclave, Delhi. The place was raided at 7.30 a.m, but she was not found there," Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South-East Delhi said.

The officer said the house was a Dera Sacha Sauda asset and a person identified as R.K. Malhotra was the caretaker. The DCP said "no one was found" at the property.

The move came a day after Honeypreet, whose real name is Priyanka Taneja, moved the Delhi High Court seeking anticipatory transit bail.

The High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea.

A court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, on Monday issued arrest warrants against top Dera functionaries Honeypreet, Aditya Insan and Pawan Insan.

All three were booked by the Haryana Police on charges of sedition, inciting violence and being involved in the conspiracy to help the Dera chief escape after his conviction by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on August 25 on two counts of raping female disciples in 1999.

The Haryana Police had sounded an international alert against all three.

Honeypreet, in her mid-30s, has been the closest aide of Ram Rahim since 2009. The police has been on her trail for nearly a month and raids have been conducted in Nepal, Rajasthan, Bihar and Haryana.

Honeypreet, who used to claim that she was Ram Rahim's "adopted daughter", starred as the main heroine in five films he directed, produced and acted in, in three years.

Last week, Honeypreet's former husband Vishwas Gupta accused her and Ram Rahim of having illicit relations and said their father-daughter relationship was a sham to fool followers.

Ram Rahim has been sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of over Rs 30 lakh.

His rape conviction led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa in Haryana, leaving 38 people dead and 264 injured. Isolated incidents of violence were also reported from Delhi and several other places in Punjab.

--IANS

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