CHANDIGARH: Justice LN Mittal on Saturday adjourned hearing on the bail plea of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to February 12. The interim relief against arrest granted to the Dera head will continue till the said date.
The Dera head had also been asked to join and cooperate with investigations on December 8 when a special Punjab Police team will go to Sirsa to interrogate him.
The Dera head had moved the plea for pre-arrest bail in a case registered against him by Bathinda police. A case was registered against the Dera head for his alleged imitation of Guru Gobind Singh by wearing clothes resembling those of the Guru and also offering Jam-e-Insan to his followers at a ceremony.
The petitioner had averred during previous hearings that he had no intention of imitating the tenth Sikh Guru whom he held in great esteem and thus had done nothing to hurt the feelings of the Sikh community.
It was also averred that the FIR was registered against him due to politics of vendetta pursued by the present government in Punjab. The Dera head had also submitted that the present Akali-BJP regime was baying for his blood following media reports that the Dera had given the call to its followers to support the Congress during the last assembly poll.
A complaint had been filed against the Dera head in May 2007 by a member of a Sikh religious organization based in Bathinda, wherein it was alleged that he had hurt the feelings of Sikhs by imitating the acts and clothes of the tenth Sikh Guru.
Source: The Times of India News Service