Dera sanitisation operation complete: official

The three-day long mammoth exercise to carry out "sanitisation" of the sprawling Dera Sacha Sauda sect headquarters premises here ended this evening, officials said.
Security forces and various government departments had launched a coordinated effort to carry out a sanitisation exercise on September 8, amid a thick security blanket.
"The search operation process in the Dera was launched from September 8 and was overseen by Court Commissioner AKS Pawar. The search operation continued till today and the process is complete now," Haryana government's Public Relations Department Deputy Director, Satish Mehra told reporters here this evening.
The operation remained smooth and peaceful, he said.

"Various teams engaged in this operation have submitted their report to the court commissioner, who will now submit his report to the Punjab and Haryana High Court," Mehra said.
The sanitisation process led to unearthing of two secret tunnels, including one that connected the Dera Sacha Sauda chief's residence with the hostel for female disciples, and an illegal firecracker factory, officials said.

An empty box of AK-47 cartridges, 84 cartons of fire crackers and chemicals from the illegal factory, besides hundreds of pairs of shoes, designer clothing and caps, were also found, Mehra said earlier.
The other fibre glass tunnel detected by the security forces opened some five kilometre away from the Dera head's private residence, he had said yesterday.

An unregistered luxury car was also seized on Friday from the Dera during the sanitisation exercise, according to officials.
The search was launched on the Dera premises in the wake of conviction of sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in two rape cases last month and the subsequent violence by his supporters which left 35 people dead in clashes in Panchkula. Six others died in Sirsa.
The sect chief has been jailed for 20 years for raping two of his disciples.
The sprawling Dera complex here includes a township with schools, a sports village, a hospital, a shopping mall and a cinema hall. The property is also home to an ostentatious '7- star MSG resort' with replicas of Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Kremlin and Disney World inside.

Police, paramilitary and civil administration personnel were involved in the mammoth operation which started on Friday on a direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The entire sanitisation process was videographed and overseen by Pawar.
The Dera complex, spread over nearly 800 acres, was divided into ten zones for the purpose of sanitisation and searches, with each zone under a senior officer.
The Dera chief, who featured in a few films directed and co-produced by himself, also has some shops in the complex where consumer products launched two years ago under the "MSG" brand were sold.