Seven Haryana police personnel who were part of the Z+ security provided to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh were arrested on Friday for preventing the cops from taking him into custody after his conviction in the 15-year-old rape case.
"Gurmeet Ram Rahim's bodyguards wanted to take him in his car, but as he was convicted, we said he would be taken in police car. There was an argument and finally he was taken in the police vehicle. We arrested the bodyguards who misbehaved with the police personnel," Sandhu said while addressing the press conference.
"We had a plan to take him by road to jail, but were not possible due to the violence. No VIP treatment is given to him," he added.
The Haryana DGP, however, refrained to comment on the reports of the arrest of five Haryana police personnel who were a part of Z-plus security cover of Rahim Singh, for obstructing the government duty.
Meanwhile, DGP Sandhu denied the reports of manhandling of the IPS officers by Rahim's followers during the whole high voltage drama.
"I had personally talked to both the IPS officers. One is DCP Sumit Kumar who was in-charge of the court proceedings and the other one was IG Karnal Subhash Yadav, who was security in-charge. Nobody misbehaved with them," he said.
The arrested policemen, who were deployed in Gurmeet’s security for the last six to seven years, were sent in police remand for seven days on Saturday.
They had tried to take Gurmeet away when he was being taken to a helicopter in a Scorpio by a special team of Haryana police on Friday. The cops, who were equipped with a jammer vehicle, also manhandled an IG-level officer who was overseeing arrangements for transporting Singh to Rohtak, says a Times of India report.
Police are now investigating the antecedents of the seven cops and also trying to find out whether they were acting on someone’s orders and who they had been in touch recently.
Meanwhile, a case of attempt to murder under the IPC and another one under the Arms Act have been lodged against them at the Panchkula Sector 5 police station.
The seven accused cops have been identified as head constables Ajay Kumar and Ram Singh and constables Balwan Singh, Krishan Das, Khusbir Singh, Vijay Singh and Fateh Singh.
ASI Ramesh Kumar, on whose complaint the cases were registered, said that the accused travelling in the jammer vehicle overtook the Scorpio carrying Gurmeet to the district inspector’s office and forced the police team to stop.
“Before we could react, two persons in commando dress approached the SUV from either side and tried to take the Dera head away. As we struggled, one of them said, 'Hum pitaji ko nahi le jaane denge. Gaadi back karke in par chada do, inko kuchal kar maar daalo (We shall not allow them to take father. Start the car and crush these cops).' The driver of the jammer vehicle tried to hit us while we were reversing. We got to one side but overpowered them with the help of other cops,” the complaint was quoted by Times of India as saying.
Police, during interrogation, found that all the seven accused cops are Dera followers, and seized their weapons – three pistols and an assault rifle.
