CBI coerces key witness in Dera chief case: HC

Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana high court waives jail sentence De La Sasha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim On March 7, Britain’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into the 2002 murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati was hit with scathing indictments of coercion of key witnesses, a failure to cross-examine police officers who recorded the victim’s dying statements, and conspiracy theories based on evidence that did not stand up to scrutiny.Journalist may have been murdered by some followers of Daraa leader: HCA division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal said Chhatrapati may have been murdered by some followers of the Dera chief, noting that it was not uncommon for people driven by “excessive and single-minded zeal” to “cross legal boundaries in the name of faith”. “The trial court should carefully examine whether there is overwhelming evidence directly implicating Chief Dera or whether the crimes may have been independently committed by some of his staunch followers,” the 113-page order posted on the court’s website on Monday said.The judge said that in its rush to close the case, the CBI forced a witness named in the order – Ram Rahim’s former driver Kartar Singh – to make statements that undermined the integrity of the investigation.It also pointed to the absence of Haryana police SI Ram Chander from the witness box as a clear example of the questionable “methodology” of the prosecution. The officer recorded Chhatrapati’s statement at PGI-Rohtak on October 26, 2002, when he succumbed to gunshot wounds. “It is very strange that the prosecution has abandoned this very important witness as it was unnecessary,” the order stated. “In the view of this court, he is the most important witness… As far as Ram Rahim is concerned, since the charge is only criminal conspiracy, SI Ram Chand’s version will be extremely important.”“The bench said the intention may have been to implicate the Dera chief in the murder of the journalist, “which is not corroborated by the statement recorded by SI Ram Chander”. The acquittal order stated: “In any case, once such an important statement is not on record and such an important witness is not examined, doubt arises in the court. The accused must necessarily have the benefit of the doubt.”The judge said Kartar Singh’s conflicting statements also cast doubt on Ram Rahim’s involvement in the murder. “He (Hatta) chose to remain silent for years and then kept being tossed from one side to the other like a ping pong ball. Even on December 26, 2006, when he first went public, he did not allude to Dera Chief and only talked about the Ranjit Singh murder case. “If he was threatened, we do not understand why he was threatened only in this case and not in the Ranjit Singh case, in which he alleged that a conspiracy was hatched by the Dera chief,” the order said. ““The verdict overturned the life sentence handed down to Ram Rahim by a special court, acknowledging that being a “well-known public figure with both supporters and opponents” could influence the narrative surrounding the man’s criminal charges. The report said the men found guilty of “carrying out” the killings – Krishan Lal, Nirmal and Kuldeep Singh – were “more likely” to have acted on their own initiative rather than following instructions from the Dera chief.