Two Dera Sacha Sauda followers, who were arrested by the Sangrur district police of Punjab on Sunday for spreading violence following the verdict of rape-convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, have reportedly admitted that they had been directed to target public buildings in the Malwa region if the Panchkula court did not rule in their chief's favour.
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Self-styled godman Singh was declared guilty by the court on August 25, following which violence erupted in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
The rioters vandalised buildings, media vans, petrol pumps, a railway station and train coaches. The violence claimed that lives of 38 people in total.
The two accused rioters made the confession on Monday. "We attended a meeting in Sirsa at 2 am on August 17 and were told to target public buildings if the verdict went against our Guruji," the main accused, identified as one Duni Chand, told the media while in police custody.
Chand and his accomplice Ranjit Singh have been accused for instigating violence in Punjab's southern districts of Sangrur, Barnala, Patiala, Mansa and Bathinda and in the adjoining Haryana state.
It has also been alleged that Ranjit was conveying information from Chand to local followers. The accused, who have been Dera followers or 'premis' since 1994, were arrested from the outskirts of the Gujran village near Dirba, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu told reporters.
Duni Chand, a native of the Sherpur town of Punjab, is a member of the Dera chief's A-team — which had been constituted to spread violence in the Malwa area of Punjab.
It has also come to light that a person named Rakesh Kumar, who lives in the Sirsa Dera and was in direct contact with their guru, had constituted this eight-member A-team to incite violence. It was Kumar who was passing on the orders of their chief to Chand, who in turn was conveying them to Ranjit.
"Rakesh Kumar, who lives in the Sirsa Dera and was in touch with the Dera head, had formed an eight-member 'A' team to spark off violence in Malwa in case of an adverse verdict. Chand was a member of that team," SSP Sidhu explained.
Around, Rs 1.7 lakh, pepper spray and Dera literature were confiscated from a car that Chand was driving.
"Like me, many others fell in the Dera management's trap and got ready to burn our own state," Chand told reporters.
Interestingly, Ranjit had attended a meeting called by the district police chief at the Police Lines to maintain law and order two days prior to the verdict.
The other seven members of this team are Major Singh of Mansa, Balwinder Singh and Gurdev Singh of Bathinda, Prithi Chand of Baghapurana, Mahinderpal Singh Bittu of Kotkapura, Gurdas Singh of Kot Bhai of Bathinda and Gurjit Singh of Moga. They are absconding.
