2017 Dera violence: Sedition charges dropped against Honeypreet, 40 others

The court of additional district and sessions judge Sanjay Sandhir here on Saturday dropped sedition charges against Honeypr

eet Insan and 39 others in the main first information report (FIR) number 345 pertaining to violence after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s conviction in rape cases on August 25, 2017.

In this case, top dera functionaries including Honeypreet Insan, adopted daughter of Ram Rahim; dera spokesperson Aditya Ins

an and other core committee members were booked. All the accused were booked under a common FIR (number 345) under sections 145, 146, 150, 151, 152, 153, 121, 121-A, 120-B, 120, 216, 201 of the IPC at the Sector 5 police station. As per the police chargesheet, conspiracy to spread violence in Panchkula was hatched at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters by Honeypreet and the 45-member dera management committee. As per the police, they have arrested 41 accused in the case till date while five were declared proclaimed offender (PO), including Aditya Insan, by a local court last year.

Defence counsel Raj Singh Chauhan said, “As the police has failed to submit incriminating evidence against the accused to back up sedition charges, the court has dropped sections 121 (waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war against government) and 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences) of the Indian Penal Code against Honeypreet and other accused. The case has been remanded back to chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court and will come up for hearing on November 6.” Honeypreet is in judicial custody at the Ambala central jail.

Honeypreet’s counsel Dhruv Gupta said, “With the sedition charges being dropped against her, it is a good ground now to apply for bail. We are yet to go through the detailed order and after examining it, will take further course of action.” This is the sixth case where sedition charges have been dropped. The state government did not give its prosecution sanction (mandatory to add these charges) in four of these six cases.

District attorney Pankaj Garg said, “We have applied for the copy of detailed order and we will go through it thoroughly before appealing further and deciding further course of the matter. The trial of the case has been shifted to CJM court now and charges to be framed on other sections would be followed there.”

The prosecution has argued that a meeting was held at the dera headquarters on August 17, 2017 which was attended by the dera chief, Aditya Insan, Honeypreet and others. It was planned in the meeting that dera followers carrying sticks, umbrellas, petrol and chili powder should throng Panchkula by August 25, 2017 and go on the rampage if the dera head was held guilty and arrested.

The dera chief’s conviction in the 2002 rape cases had triggered arson and violence in Panchkula and some other parts of Haryana that claimed 36 lives and left 250 people injured. In Panchkula, 177 FIRs were registered at different police stations and till now police have filed 152 challans in local courts. A total of 2,138 accused have been arrested so far.