Sacrilege cases: All 8 accused appear in court, Ram Rahim via videoconferencing

All eight accused in the three sacrilege cases including Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim appeared before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Chandigarh, on Wednesday. Gurmeet’s presence was assured via video-conferencing.

The case is now listed for May 4 for arguments.

During the first hearing of the case, on April 5, 2023, production warrants were issued to Ram Rahim while notices were issued to the rest to appear in the court.

“The court had asked for proceedings in the Faridkot court, to which we informed that we had filed an application seeking supply of all documents related to evidences collected by the CBI and SIT and statements recorded, from the investigating agencies,” said advocate Amar D Kamra, who appeared for Ram Rahim.

Three interlinked FIRs were registered in 2015. First FIR was registered on June 2, 2015 which is regarding theft of ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015. The second FIR was registered on September 25, 2015, after derogatory posters were put up at Bargari and third FIR was registered on October 12, 2015 as torn pages of a ‘bir’ were found scattered near Bargari gurdwara.

Eight people, Sukhjinder Singh Alias Mani, Shakti Singh, Baljit Singh, Nishan Singh, Pardeep Singh alias Raju, Ranjit Singh alias Bhola and Gurmeet Ram Rahim are named in three FIRs including .

Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been named as the main conspirator in the sacrilege cases by the SIT led by the inspector general of police SPS Parmar.

The Supreme Court in February had ordered the transfer of the trial from Faridkot to Chandigarh.