Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was held guilty of two rapes last week by a CBI court and sentenced to 20 years in prison, had plans to escape right after the court ruling.
A senior Haryana police officer on Wednesday told NDTV the cops foiled an attempt by the Dera chief's "commandos" to free him.
Singh, soon after being declared guilty by the special CBI court where hearing of the case took place, had demanded a "red bag" he had brought from Sirsa, the headquarters of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect.
"The Dera chief demanded the bag, saying his clothes were in it. It was actually a signal for his men to spread the news of his conviction among supporters so that they could resort to causing disturbance," said Inspector General of Police KK Rao, as quoted by NDTV.
As the bag was taken out of the Dera chief's SUV, tear gas shells were heard about 2-3 km from the court, the officer added. "It was then that we understood that there was some meaning behind the signal," he said.
The police also felt something was off when Honeypreet Insan, Baba's "adopted daughter" who is always by his side, stood in the corridor of the court complex and delayed their departure.
"They were trying to gain time before sitting in the vehicle so that their men could spread the message that he was moving from the court. They were told that you cannot stand here. The mob was about 2-3 km and could have moved closer. We never wanted violence as casualties could have been more," Rao said.
When the police decided to shift Singh to a police car, his "bodyguards" formed a ring around him and even tried to manhandle the cops. "We took good care that no firing takes place," Rao stated.
Sensing trouble from the 80 SUVs that had escorted the self-styled godman to the court and were parked close by, the police quickly devised a new plan and changed the route by which he was to be taken to prison.
"Our priority was to first take Ram Rahim to the chopper site... We did not want to use the same route as 70 vehicles were standing. People in those vehicles might have been carrying weapons," he said.
Army comes to aid
"I asked an Army man to allow the police vehicles (including the one carrying the Dera chief) to move through the cantonment area. Had their people come to know about our movement, they would have reached there and firing could have taken place," the police officer said.
"After we devised another route plan, his men were clueless for half an hour," the IGP said.
