Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan has recently recused himself from hearing a plea seeking the transfer of trial against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the Ranjit Singh murder case.
Justice Sangwan has asked for listing before some other bench the petition filed in connection with the Ranjit Singh murder case allegedly involving Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
“It has come to my notice that I appeared as an advocate on behalf of Ranjit Singh (regarding whose murder trial, this petition arises) as well as his father Late Joginder Singh, Sarpanch in 2 civil litigations at Kurukshetra in 1986-1988. Let this case be listed before some other Bench, after obtaining the appropriate orders from Hon’ble the Chief Justice,” the order reads.
On August 24, Justice Sangwan restrained the Special CBI Court in Panchkula from pronouncing the judgment in the murder case when it heard about the transfer plea filed by the son of the deceased. The Court listed the matter before itself for further hearing on August 27.
Thereafter, a report was sought and filed by the Special Judge, and the High Court was set to pronounce its order on September 2 as to whether the trial would be transferred or not.
The petition was filed by victim Ranjit Singh’s son Jagseer Singh, alleging that everything has been manipulated through CBI Public Prosecutor KP Singh. The son had questioned adjournments granted by the CBI judge a number of times since joining. The CBI has denied allegations against its public prosecutor.
Ranjit Singh was murdered in 2002. As per the CBI, he was murdered as Ram Rahim suspected that he was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter highlighting the sexual exploitation of female disciples on the Dera premises.
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Ram Rahim is presently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak district after his conviction for raping two disciples in 2017 by the special CBI court in Panchkula and was sentenced to 20-year imprisonment. In the 2002 murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, the same court sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2019.