Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim convicted in journo murder case

PANCHKULA: Special CBI judge in Panchkula Jagdeep Singh on Friday convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three others in the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhtarapati.The court will now pronounce the quantum of sentence on January 17. The accused were convicted under Section 302 (Punishment for murder) and 120 B (Criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.Besides the Dera chief, the CBI judge convicted Dera manager Krishan Lal and two shooters Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh.Whereas the other accused - Krishan Lal, Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh - were present in person in the courtroom, the Dera chief was presented through video conferencing.Recently, the CBI judge had accepted Haryana police ’s application wherein the cops had sought permission to allow the presence of Ram Rahim Singh through video conferencing for the verdict in a murder case on January 11.Recently, former CBI officer Mulinja Narayanan, in his statement before the special CBI judge, had submitted that there was enough evidence against the Dera chief in the Chhatarpati and Ranjit Singh murder cases.According to the CBI chargesheet, Dera manager Krishan Lal had given his licensed revolver and a walkie-talkie to two shooters -Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh - in the presence of Dera chief. Thereafter, both the accused fired at Chhatarpati in front of his house on October 24, 2002. He died three weeks later. Chhatarpati had been writing against the Dera chief in his newspaper 'Poora Sach'.Khatta Singh, the former driver of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim, was a key witness in the murder case.In May 2018, Khatta Singh had told the Panchkula CBI court that Ram Rahim had ordered his men to eliminate the Sirsa-based journalist, in his presence. Singh was among CBI’s most important witnesses after the agency filed chargesheet in both the murder cases in 2007.