"Congress has always tried to disturb peace in the state whenever it is out of power."
A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Saturday directed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to be present on August 23 to hear formal framing of charges against him in connection with a 1999 case involving the rape of a female disciple.Singh was not present in the court today owing to ill health, skipping a second successive appearance. The Dera chief is the lone accused in the case of alleged sexual exploitation involving a female sect member.
One person was killed when a group of Sikhs clashed with Dera Sacha Sauda supporters in Dabwali town in Sisra district of Chandigarh on Friday morning.
high level delegation led by Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal will visit Mumbai on Tuesday to meet the members of the family of Balkar Singh, who was killed in the incident of firing allegedly by private security guards of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh.
The incident took place near the venue of Congress leader Harminder Singh Jassi's roadshow.
A car, part of the cavalcade of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, went up in flames in Haryana's Karnal district on Saturday. The driver of the car lost control after its engine developed trouble near village Manakmajra. Suddenly there was a loud explosion and the car went up in flames, police said. Two people have been rounded up in connection with the incident, police said, adding it was too early to conclude whether it was an accident or an attack
A special CBI court on August 28 had sentenced Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in prison.
A local court on Thursday extended till October 15 the interim bail given to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh in three cases of murder and sexual harassment
The allegation is that the Dera plotted against VVIPs like Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and several others.
Her name has been included in the same FIR in which other Dera functionaries Aditya Insan and Surinder Dhiman, among others, had been booked for allegedly inciting violence and arson, police said.
A special CBI team, escorted by heavily armed police, reached the Dera headquarters in Sirsa on Saturday morning and was made to wait for over three hours before the notice could be served to the Dera chief in his gufa (cave), CBI sources said.
According to official sources in Chandigarh, the six persons, all belonging to Sikh community, received minor injuries on their legs after the shooting incident in Mallewala village, about 10 km from Sirsa, and were treated in a local hospital.
The government had given the nod for his arrest.
Emerging from a meeting of Akal Takht in Amritsar, jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti told reporters that "the fresh note received from Dera head neither accepts his sin nor promises not to repeat such act again."
Police on Saturday registered a case after computer-generated posters were found pasted on walls in village Mari Mustfa on Friday threatening the sect which was locked in a violent stand-off last month with Sikhs.
Top Sikh clerics on Tuesday met to decide the future course of action against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the wake of an apology tendered by him for dressing like Guru Gobind Singh.
In his apology letter directed to Guru Gobind Singh, the Dera chief had expressed kshama (apology) for his acts as he had never intended to imitate the 10th Guru by dressing up like him, which hurt Sikh sentiments.
No violence was reported from any part of the state and the situation was peaceful and under control.
The Dera Sacha Sauda on Friday moved a petition before the Supreme Court seeking protection for all the Deras across the country against an alleged ultimatum given by the Akal Takht to vacate them by May 27 and stop their activities.
The Sikh high priests have called for a Punjab bandh on May 22.
The home ministry, which is closely monitoring the situation in these states, will give all possible assistance to them to tackle the situation
At least 50 people, including over 20 policemen, were injured in violent protests in Bathinda and Sriganganagar in Rajasthan.
'It was very clear that there would be violence if the verdict was not what they wanted.' 'Then why did they allow his followers to gather here in such huge numbers?'
Dera Sacha Sauda, a quasi-religious cult with hundreds of thousands of followers, offers a wide variety of products and educational and health services, its website states.
The army was kept on standby and curfew imposed in Dabwali town in Haryana's Sirsa district on Friday after a group of Sikhs and supporters of the Dera Sacha Sauda fought pitched battles in which one person was killed and 30 injured. Late on Friday night, violence spread to Gukanwali village, about 25 km from Dabwali, as Sikhs attacked an ashram belonging to the Dera and set it on fire.
Four staff members of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief held in connection with the gunning down of a 40-year-old Sikh outside a suburban mall were taken to the spot of the crime in order to reconstruct the sequence of events which led to the shooting, police said on Tuesday.
The release of the movie was cleared by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.
The CM also said the damage caused to some media personnel's equipment during the violence will be taken care of the government.
The Dera head had been accused by the CBI of two murders -- Dera manager Ranjit Singh and scribe Ram Chander Chattarapati -- besides rape of his disciple.
A young woman said to be a follower of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect immolated herself at her house in a village near Bathinda on Friday, allegedly as she was upset due to the Dera-Sikh row.
"I thought that rediff.com was only a portal and had nothing to do with news," he said.
Earlier, the CBI filed a "status report" in the court of Justices Adesh Kumar Goel and Ajay Lamba about the three cases in compliance of the high court's order.
Talking about the earlier two apologies sent by the Dera Sacha Sauda, Vedanti described them as mere 'press notes' and alleged the language used in the text was not proper.
Who controls the government in Punjab?
The cases relate to the murder of a Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chatterpatti and Dera Manager Ranjit Singh besides other related cases.
A Bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice D K Jain said there was no urgency in the matter for early hearing.
Mediators said the purpose of the move was to avoid any more confrontation between the communities.
"We are trying to simplify the draft statement which we will telephonically discuss with the Sikh leaders", he said.
Swami Agnivesh speaks about the Dera-Sikh standoff, which he is attempting to resolve.
The Sikh high priests have also demanded that Ram Rahim tender an unqualified apology for wearing clothes similar to that of the tenth Guru Gobind Singh.
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