2015 sacrilege cases | Punjab Govt sanctions prosecution of Sirsa Dera chief Ram Rahim in 3 sacrilege cases

2015 sacrilege cases: The Punjab government has sanctioned prosecution of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in three major sacrilege cases in 2015. The sacrilege incidents had sparked outrage among the Sikh community, resulting in protests, clashes and the deaths of two protesters in police firing.

The state government also approved the prosecution of three Dera national committee members: Pardeep Kler, Harsh Dhuri, and Sandeep Bareta. Kler was caught early this year, but Dhuri and Bareta remain at large.

The development comes three days after the Supreme Court lifted a stay on the prosecution of the controversial Dera head. The Punjab Government had petitioned the Supreme Court to lift the stay granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in March.

The chief of Sirsa Dera has been already convicted of rape and murder in Haryana. The BJP government released him on a 20-day parole just three days before the Haryana Assembly election on October 5.

 The sanction was approved on Monday evening by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The prosecution sanction ran into legal hurdles when a four-member special investigation team (SIT) led by ADGP SPS Parmar indicted him in July 2022 as one of the main culprits in the sacrilege case. He was one among 12 people indicted by the SIT with three sacrilege incidents. These cases were registered under Section 295 of the IPC, which allows the government to prosecute such cases.