The Quint spoke to Mahesh Gupta, former father-in-law of Honeypreet Singh, and ‘adopted daughter’ of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Gupta was an insider and a follower of Dera Sacha Sauda from 1970 till 2009. He said he observed the activities of Dera from close quarters.

In 1999, Gupta's son Vishwas married Priyanka Taneja aka Honeypreet, but the two separated in 2009 when he came to know that she had illicit relationship with Ram Rahim. Gupta also filed a divorce case against Honeypreet in the High Court in 2011, in which he mentioned this as reason for their separation – that’s how Ram Rahim and Honeypreet’s relationship became public. But the ‘godman’ made the Guptas’ lives miserable by bombarding the family with false cases and threatening to kill them, after which they went into hiding.

After Ram Rahim's conviction, the family has slowly started talking to the media to give their side of the story.