High Court terms Friday Dera violence as ‘war like-situation’

The Punjab and Haryana High Court said that the mayhem caused by followers of self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh last Friday was a ‘war like-situation’ on Tuesday.

The court added that the situation had to be tackled accordingly and gave directions in connection to the matter,

Punjab and Haryana governments have been directed by the court to set up special investigation teams (SITs) of three officer headed by an officer not below the rank of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP)  to investigate all the cases registered at various places in connection with the Dera violence.

The bench comprising of Chief Justice SS Saron and Justice Surya Kant, Justice Avneesh Jhingan directed that no FIR registered by the two states during the Friday mayhem shall be cancelled without the permission of the High Court.

The court has also directed the police that case diaries of each FIR and the report of investigation in connection with the violence to be submitted on a monthly basis to the concerned "area magistrates". The magistrates will submit their comments to the High Court within ten days.

The court has also the Haryana government to file detailed report regarding the steps taken to sanitise Dera Sacha Sauda centres including its headquarters at Sirsa.

The Dera counsel submitted before the court that security forces should have used rubber bullets to disperse the mob in Panchkula and not used bullets.

The judges did not agree to the Dera counsel’s submission and said, “You can’t go soft when some people come armed with petrol bombs and deadly weapons to indulge in arson and lawlessness.”

The judges further said, “This was a war-like situation and it had to be fought like a war-like situation.”

It was hearing a PIL filed by a Panchkula resident Ravinder Dhull, a lawyer, who had raised law and order concerns and stated that over 1.5 lakh people had reportedly entered the district earlier despite prohibitory orders.

Violence broke out at Panchkula after Ram Rahim was convicted in a rape case by the special CBI court on Friday leaving 32 people dead while six died at Sirsa, even as incidents of violence were reported from parts of Punjab as well.