Chandigarh: A local court on Friday framed charges against rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and two of his doctor disciples in a case of castration of sect followers inside the Dera premises.
The court in Haryana’s Panchkula town charged him for cheating and voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in February 2017, had filed a charge-sheet against the controversial sect chief and his two doctors in the castration case in the CBI court in Panchkula.
The two doctors, who were allegedly involved in the castration process, were charged with criminal conspiracy and causing grievous hurt. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in December 2014, had asked the CBI to probe allegations of forced castration by the sect doctors, at the behest of the sect chief.
Former sect follower, Hansraj Chauhan, who was one of the victims of castration, had moved the court against the sect chief.
Chauhan had claimed that he along with 400 followers were allegedly castrated inside the Dera premises after being told that this will take them closer to God.
The CBI charge-sheet was filed nearly three years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the CBI to probe the allegations that the controversial sect chief had forced castration of his followers inside the Dera campus near Sirsa town in Haryana.
Ram Rahim, who is serving a 20-year sentence in Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail for raping two women disciples, is facing legal proceedings in two murder cases also.
