THE infamous Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Sirsa, the self-styled godman of what is known as Haryana, who has been languishing in Sunariyan Jail for the rape of a couple of female disciples, has been convicted again, this time in a murder case. Both the judgments came from the CBI Special Court. One judgment concerning rape by the godman in 2017 and another for murder by the same accused as recently as last week. In both cases, the investigative agencies found it a herculean task to secure prosecuting witnesses, since the Baba wields enough power with whichever government that had been ruling the state. The Indian Express places the Baba among the one hundred power-wielding persons in India.
The rape case involving two girls and the murder case of a worker Ranjit Singh, had the prime prosecuting witnesses, chased and hounded, threatened and bullied to the extent that in the latter case, Khatta Singh who was the driver of the vehicle the Baba travelled in, was made to buckle under pressure earlier, a fact he made known to the Court at a later date in 2018, to have the trial a begin afresh convicting the Baba of murder. The CBI has gone on record stating that it was but for the evidence provided by Khatta Singh that the conviction could be secured. According to the CBI Special Public Prosecutor, HPS Verma: “This witness is the eyewitness of both the incidents dated June 16, 2002, and is, fortunately, the direct evidence with the prosecuting agency regarding the hatching of the conspiracy by the accused about the murder of the victim.” This is a high-profile case which has once again raised the question of witness protection in our criminal justice delivery system. This raises the question of whether it is for the State to provide ways and means to protect the witnesses from physical harm, if not for being allured or won over otherwise by other means.
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