Z-plus Security to Ram Rahim, Vij says home never got any file on threat to Dera chief
Ram Rahim is currently staying at his Gurgaon ashram and has been kept under heavy security. He will remain in furlough till February 27.
4 min read
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij.
(File Photo)A day after Haryana provided Z-plus security cover to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, allegedly based on a letter from a senior police officer citing threat from “pro-Khalistani” elements to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, state Home Minister Anil Vij denied knowledge of exchange of any such communication.
Replying to media queries if there was a specific communication stating that Dera chief faced threats to his life from pro-Khalistani elements, Vij said, “No such report has come to me, nor any file has gone through my office. I have no information on this”.
The intelligence wing, which deals with such threat-perception issues, is with the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
The CM, meanwhile, justified the Z-plus security cover to Ram Rahim, who was released on 21-day furlough on February 7 from Rohtak district’s Sunaria jail.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event in Panchkula, Khattar said, “A person is given security on the basis of threat perception. If a prisoner, whether lodged inside jail or out on furlough, faces a threat, it is the government’s duty to provide security to him”.
“It is not that he demanded Z-plus security… till the time he faces the security threat, providing security is our job,” he said, reiterating that the :security was provided after assessing the” threat that the Dera chief faces.
Khattar said when the government feels that there is a change in Ram Rahim’s threat perception, his security will be reviewed accordingly.
Ram Rahim was provided the Z-plus security cover based on a communication from a senior Haryana police officer who mentioned that the Dera chief was facing a high-level threat from radical Sikh extremists in India and abroad.
“There are reliable inputs regarding the threat to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh from pro-Khalistan activists,” the official communication said.
Ram Rahim is currently staying at his Gurgaon ashram and has been kept under heavy security. He will remain in furlough till February 27.
The controversial dear chief was granted furlough just days before the February 20 Assembly polls in Punjab, where his sect has a large number of followers, particularly in Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala and Muktsar. Earlier, Khattar had denied any link between Ram Rahim’s furlough and the Punjab polls, saying it was a coincidence.
The sect chief is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his Sirsa ashram. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017. He was last year also convicted along with four others for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager, in 2002. In 2019, the Dera chief and three others were also convicted for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago.
He had been held guilty for hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused for these killings. He had been convicted under section 120-B read with section 302 of IPC.
You May Like
