Ram Rahim approaches HC, challenges CBI order

The CBI court in Panchkula on August 28 had sentenced Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison after his conviction. “We have filed an appeal today in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Through this, we have challenged the order of the CBI court,” defence counsel Vishal Garg Narwana said here. He said the CBI verdict has been challenged on several grounds. 

“One of the grounds was that there was a delay of more than six years in recording the statements of the women (victims) by the CBI after the incident,” the defence counsel said. The CBI had claimed that the two women followers were sexually exploited in 1999 and the agency recorded their statement in 2005, Garg said. He alleged that the CBI had also concealed some portion of the victims statement. 

Ram Rahim was convicted by the special CBI court on August 25, following which violence and arson had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa districts which left 41 people dead and scores of injured. 

The judge pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two rapes that date back to 2002. 

Honeypreet moves for anticipatory bail 

Honeypreet Insan, who has been on the run following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in two rape cases, on Monday approached the Delhi HC seeking transit anticipatory bail, her lawyer said. 

Priyanka Taneja alias Honeypreet, the adopted daughter of the jailed Dera chief, tops the list of 43 persons ‘wanted’ by the police in connection with incidents of violence that had followed Ram Rahim’s conviction in the rape cases. Her lawyer Pradeep Kumar told that they have filed the anticipatory bail petition in the Delhi HC and the matter would be mentioned on Tuesday before a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal for hearing.