When Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh entered the CBI court at Panchkula, which convicted him of rape, many including news anchors tried to count the number of vehicles in his entourage. Some gave up after 100, some went until 150.
But somebody in the local police department kept counting. Which is how we know that 302 vehicles followed Rahim into the court. That's over 15 times the size of Indian President's cavalcade. And now, thanks to the police department, the rapist godman's cavalcade is being cut down to size.
According to source, of the 302 cars that accompanied Ram Rahim, 29 vehicles, most of them luxury SUVs, have been impounded by Haryana police and 20 followers of the godman have been arrested. Ram Rahim is known to own a fleet of luxury cars. He used to drive himself around in a plush Range Rover while his acolytes followed up in Ford Endeavors.
"These vehicles entered through Saketri village on the evening of August 25. The local residents, including RWA president Davinder Mahajan, alerted the police, which led to the recovery of these vehicles," Panchkula police commissioner AS Chawla told News 18.
Among the vehicles in Rahim's motorcade was a fire engine that police suspects contained a chemical substance and could have been used as a deadly weapon to spread violence. 'Dera Sacha Sauda' was found written on the fire engine. The police have kept the impounded vehicle. A local police investigative team is also trying to find how a fire engine, loaded with petrol, became part of Rahim's motorcade. The vehicles and fire engine have been kept at Mansa Devi Complex (MDC) police station, Panchkula.
Police has also made some very dangerous and intriguing recoveries from the cars impounded from the godman's cavalcade. Among the recoveries include weapons - pistols, countrymade pistols, other sophisticated weapons, iron rods, sticks, wireless sets - and intriguingly - women's unde rwear.
"The chemical recovered from the fire engine, which formed part of the dera chief’s motorcade, is being examined by a special investigation team," Haryana Director-General of Police, BS Sandhu, said. He added "Prima facie, it seemed the chemical had neutral pH value and was non-inflammable. Apart from this, some luxury cars which had been seized are also being examined."
Commenting on the police preparations in the run up to the sentencing of Ram Rahim, Chawla told News 18, "The Panchkula police are fully prepared for Monday in view of announcement of quantum of sentence to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the rape case. Also, we have decreased the deployment of security forces but retain control over the situation."
Earlier on Friday, more than 50 dera followers, armed with rifles, pistols and petrol, were arrested at Singh Dwar. A total of 21 FIRs have been registered in connection with Friday violence and 915 people arrested to date.
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