It took 15 years to convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. In these 15 years, the kind of support that he has built for himself has gone beyond fact and logic. The sheer number of his followers running havoc in different parts of north India is both shocking and shameful.
32 people have died so far and the number is expected to rise.
Amidst this chaos, where people are clearly not focusing on the real issues, there has been a revelation.
The two survivors, who were minors back when they were raped by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, took more than 10 years to finally record their statements before the judges. This happened in 2009 and 2010. These statements are directly linked to the Ram Rahim Singh verdict that led to his conviction on Friday.
The story that the sadhvis have shared at their deposition on oath before CBI judges illustrate heart wrenching and horrific details of what actually went down in Baba’s ‘gufa‘— his personal residence which was a customised underground chamber.
According to TOI, who are in possession of the copy of the statement by these two sadhvis, Gurmeet would flaunt his ‘God’ status and his ‘clout’ while raping them and the other women of the dera. The women or disciples would refer rape as ‘maafi’ (pardon) amongst each other. These women were responsible for guarding his underground living quarters and only female disciples were deployed for this purpose.
This was not all.
The most shocking bit was most of these women preferred staying at the Dera because either they were completely enamored by Gurmeet’s stature as a spiritual guru or their parents and family were his loyal followers.
In these two accounts, one of which was taken in Yamunanagar, Haryana, on February 28, 2009, the survivor said that she started living in the dera in July 1999 because of her brother who was later reportedly murdered for trying to seek justice for her. She stated that initially, the other disciples would constantly ask her if she has been “granted maafi by pitaji” but she didn’t really understand what that means until one day she was called by Gurmeet into the ‘gufa’ on August 28/29, 1999, and raped.
In the second account, which was taken on September 9th, 2010, the sadhvi revealed that she joined the dera in June 1998 because of her parents used to teach at the dera. That led her to become a follower and later, her name was also changed to Nazam by Gurmeet who, in the same month, called her inside his ‘gufa’, raped her and threatened her to not tell anyone.
Shocking details continue to emerge on the self-styled godman and his way of life. The court is yet to decided on the quantum of punishment after his conviction.
