With no instances of violence post sentencing, curfew to be relaxed in Sirsa.
With no instances of violence being reported here after the sentencing of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the district administration on Monday decided to relax curfew from 7 am to 7 pm on Monday.
During the period, schools and colleges will also remain open. The decision was taken at a high level meeting between authorities. Sirsa town is home to the sprawling Dera headquarters where the sect's followers had gathered in large numbers ahead of Ram Rahim's conviction. "During the relaxation of curfew people can buy their household items. Also, schools colleges and other educations institutions will also remain open during the period," Special Commissioner (Civil), V Umashankar told PTI.
Earlier in the day, Inspector General (Hisar range) A S Dhillon said there has been no report of violence by Dera followers in the district. A special CBI court today sentenced Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison after his conviction in two rape cases. CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two cases that date back to 2002, said defence lawyer S K Garg Narwana. He said both sentences will run consecutively for a total of 20 years in jail for the flamboyant guru who has millions of followers and counts politicians as well as celebrities as his friends. The conviction of the Dera head triggered arson and violence across Haryana that claimed 36 lives and injured over 250 people. In Sirsa, four people died and 58 were injured.
"There was no report of any untoward incident and I hope that peace will be maintained," Umashankar said. He said excluding the permanent residents of the area, many of whom were also Dera followers, the number of other supporters in the sect's headquarters in Sirsa was not more than a thousand. Umashankar said that the deputy commissioner of Sirsa had ordered the attachment of the accounts of Dera Sacha Sauda and compensation to the people affected by violence during the episode may be given from these as per court orders.
A senior IAS officer, Umashankar is posted as the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), but has been assigned special duty to assist the Sirsa administration, which is on a high alert keeping in view the Dera chief's conviction. Talking about the possibility of firearms being there in the sect headquarters, Umashankar said that some weapons were in the name of Dera and some were registered in the names of individuals. He said that from the day of Ram Rahim Singh's conviction by a court in Panchkula on August 25, the state authorities had worked to ensure that the violent mob doesn't move towards Sirsa.
We were conscious that if such a mob comes towards the city and indulges in violence and arson, then it would have been very difficult to control and we had accordingly deployed our forces, he said. Our second objective was that if the violence takes place, we have to contain it in a specific area and prevent it from spreading, he said. The third objective was to exercise maximum restraint, which was not entirely possible in this kind of situation, but still we had to exercise it and not allow it to escalate, Umashankar added. I am happy to tell you that due to the alertness of our forces, with the support of Army, personal leadership of Sirsa DC and SP, incidents of arson and looting were prevented, he said.
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