Investigate claims of money laundering in Dera, HC tells Enforcement Directorate and I-T Department
The High Court also asked the Haryana government to look into claims of government favours extended to regularise construction inside the sect’s Sirsa campus.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday asked the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department to investigate allegations of money laundering inside the Dera Sacha Sauda, The Indian Express reported.
The court asked the Haryana government to look into media reports that claimed that successive governments had extended favours to Dera chief and convicted rapist Gurmet Ram Rahim Singh to regularise illegal constructions inside the sect’s Sirsa headquarters. The state was also told to clarify whether the Dera moved any “movable property” from the Sirsa campus before it was inspected.
The court also asked Punjab and Haryana governments to set up compensation tribunals to evaluate and quantify the loss of private and public properties during the violence that erupted in Panchkula, Sirsa and other districts after Ram Rahim was convicted in two rape cases in August. The case will come up for further hearing on November 9.
At least 40 people died and more than 250 were injured in the violence that erupted after the verdict on August 25. On August 28, a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Panchkula had sentenced Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison for raping two of his followers in 2002.