No relief from SC to Dera Sacha Sauda chief in rape case

The Supreme Court on Friday declined plea by Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Sant Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh seeking direction to CBI to provide more samples of hand-written pages by one of his erstwhile follower who has alleged that she was raped by him in 1999.

"Despite weighty arguments by senior counsel Jayant Bhushan we are not inclined to interfere," said the bench of Justice Dipak Mistra and Justice C. Nagappan while refusing to entertain the plea.

The Dera chief approached the top court for more samples of hand written pages by the victim as Bhushan told the court that Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) that examined the letter written by the victim in 2001 to Dera chief held that it can't take a view one way or the other and had sought more samples.

The court was unmoved even when Bhushan told it that thought the victim had alleged that the rape took place in 1999 but in 2001 she wrote a letter to Ram Raheem Singh describing him as "Pitaji" (father) and expressing gratitude for all he had done for her including overlooking her mistakes at the time.

The Dera chief is facing trial by the special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ambala and has been charged for offences under Section sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code by the CBI in 2007.

One of his disciples had written an anonymous letter addressed to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 in accusing Dera chief of sexual abuse.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court took up the matter and had ordered a CBI probe into the incident on September 24, 2002.

--IANS

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