Illegal explosives factory inside Dera premises sealed; explosives, fire crackers seized

Illegal explosives factory has been sealed, explosives and fire crackers has been seized inside self-proclaimed Godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa on Saturday.

Deputy Director (Public Relations) of the Haryana Government Satish Mehra told ANI "Explosives and fire crackers have been seized from the headquarters."

Mehra further told ANI that a set of walkie-talkies has also been found inside the room of convicted Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Besides that, "Some minor children have been rescued, one is from Uttar Pradesh and the other is from Kaithal. They have been handed over to the district child protection officer," Mehra said.

He also said that unlabelled medicines have been found on the premises and handed over to the district administration.

Mehra confirmed that search operations would continue till the evening and action would be initiated thereafter.

On Friday, after Security forces conducted sanitisation operations a luxury car without aregistration plate and old currency notes were seized from the headquarters of the Sacha Sauda Dera, a sect whose head is in jail after being convicted for rape, an official said.

— ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2017

In a mammoth search operation being carried out by security forces and district authorities, some rooms were also sealed and hard disk drives and unlabelled medicines recovered, Haryana's Information and Public Relations DeputyDirector, Satish Mehra, who has been authorised by the administration to speak to the media, said.

The exercise is being conducted amid tight security bypolice and paramilitary personnel, besides senior officials of various government departments. "Some rooms have been sealed, computer hard disk drives,unregistered Lexus car, an OB van, Rs 7,000 of demonetised currency, Rs 12,000 cash and some pharma medicines without labels or a brand name are among other items which have been seized," he said. 

Mehra said forensic teams had reached Sirsa from Karnaland Sonipat, while forensic experts had also been called infrom Roorkee in Uttarakhand. Reports of plastic "coins" or tokens being found during the operations could not be confirmed. The process, which began around 8 AM, is beingvideographed and monitored by retired District and SessionsJudge A K S Pawar, who was appointed as a Court Commissionerby the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday to oversee the exercise. 

The roads are also blocked and no unauthorised person is being allowed to move towards the Dera premises. The Dera, spread over nearly 800 acres, has been divided into ten zones for the purpose of sanitisation and searches,with each zone under the control of a senior officer. Mobile Internet services have been suspended in Sirsa district till September 10 to curb the spread of rumours inview of the drive, and to prevent the disturbance of public order.

Journalists were stopped at the Shah Satnam Singh Chowk,about 7km from the headquarters. The chowk, which separates the heart of the city from the Dera, is also under heavy security. Security personnel had also been deployed in strength at other road blockades or 'nakas' around the Dera. 

Earlier on September 5, the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave orders to conduct a search operation of Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters under the supervision of a judicial officer.

This order came after the Haryana Police seized 33 licensed weapons of the Dera Sacha Sauda. These weapons included 14 revolvers, nine guns, four rifles and other modified weapons.

The police later seized and sealed all weapons

With PTI Inputs