CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Others 1
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CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and others 1 CNRNo.HRPK01-000048-2007 Case No.Chi/1852/2013 Present: Shri H.P.S. Verma, Special PP and Sh. S.S. Yadav, DLA- cum-Special PP for the CBI along with Sh. Satish Dagar, Investigating Officer/SP, AC-III/New Delhi. Shri P.K. Sandhir, Shri Gurdas Singh, Advocate and Shri Harish Chhabra, Advocate for accused-convict Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Accused Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in custody at District Jail, Sunaria (Rohtak) present through VC. Shri N.P.S. Waraich, Advocate and Shri Sarabjit Singh Waraich, Advocate for accused-convicts Nirmal Singh and Kuldeep Singh. Shri Anil Kaushik,Advocate for accused-convict Krishan Lal. Accused-convicts Nirmal Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Krishan Lal in custody at Central Jail, Ambala present through VC. ORDER ON QUANTUM OF SENTENCE 1. This order is in continuation of the judgment of conviction dated 11.01.2019, for hearing arguments on the quantum of sentence. 2. In order to ensure effective opportunity of hearing to accused/convicts on the quantum of sentence, all four convicts, namely, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal @ Kishan Lal are present through video conferencing and counsel of all four convicts have come present in person in Court. Statements of all convicts have been separately recorded through video conferencing. 3. Convict-Baba Gurmeet Singh @ Maharaj Gurmeet Singh @ Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has stated that he is 51 years old and spiritual head of Dera Sacha Sauda, a social and spiritual sect with moto of “Dhan Dhan Satguru Tera Hi Asra”, a faith which is serving the mankind from its headquarter at Sirsa since 1948. During this period of serving as a head since 1991, he has been involved in various social, religious and other CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and others 2 welfare activities like blood donation, tree plantation, drug eradication to more than 6 Crore people, cleanliness, fight against female foeticide as well as help to the needy at the time of natural calamities. He has permanent trouble of severe back ache and is also suffering from acute diabetes for the last more than 9 years. Besides this, he has old aged mother (widow) who usually remains ill and a housewife with one son and two daughters born in his family. His entire family is free from any criminal record except the present spat of cases after 2002 which is handiwork of forces against and opposing welfare activities done by him and Dera Sacha Sauda. He is not an accused for any criminal act which has been alleged against him to be committed after occurrence of present case i.e. October, 2002. Although, He has already challenged his conviction and sentence in case RC No. 5/2002, still he prays that order of sentence in the present case be passed concurrent with the sentence in RC No. 5/2002 which he is already undergoing. There is no complaint from anyone or from jail authority since then and his conduct is good in jail. 4. Convict-Kuldeep Singh @ Kala has stated that he is not previously convicted. His parents who are old aged persons generally remains ill. There is no one in the family to look-after them except him. He is the sole bread earner of the family. He has faced the agony of trial for the last 16 years. He remained in custody for about 14 years during the trial of the present case and his conduct was good in the jail, there is no complaint against him regarding indiscipline committed by him during the period he remained in custody. Except the present case, there is no other complaint or case pending or decided against him in the Court of Law and CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and others 3 prayed that lenient view may kindly be taken by considering the fact that he is not previously convicted. 5. Convict-Nirmal Singh has stated that he is not previously convicted. He has old aged mother. There is no one in the family to support the family except him. He is the sole bread earner of the family. He has faced the agony of trial for the last 16 years. He remained in custody for about 14 years during the trial of the present case and his conduct was good in the jail, there is no complaint against him regarding indiscipline committed by him during the period he remained in custody. Except the present case, there is no other complaint or case pending or decided against him in the Court of Law and payed that lenient view may kindly be taken by considering the fact that he is not previously convicted. 6. Convict-Krishan Lal @ Kishan Lal has stated that he is 70 years old. He is suffering from various ailments. He is not previously convicted. There is no one in the family to support the family except him. He is the sole bread earner of the family. He has faced the agony of trial for the last 16 years and prayed that lenient view may kindly be taken by considering the fact that he is not previously convicted. 7. Learned Special Prosecutor as well as learned DLA-cum- Special PP for CBI have submitted that offences committed by convicts are heinous in nature as murder of deceased Ram Chander Chhatarpati was a planned and cold blooded murder. It is submitted that murder of the deceased ruined his family and his children of very young age were orphaned untimely and the same has caused severe mental agony and CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and others 4 insecurity to the family of the deceased and the very lives of his family members have been shattered. Learned Special PPs have also submitted that convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim is Head of dera sacha sauda and projected himself as a God-man and taking undue advantage of his position, he in conspiracy with other co-accused/convicts got eliminated Ram Chander Chhatarpati in pursuance of the conspiracy hatched by the accused. It is further submitted that deceased Ram Chander Chhatarpati used to publish newspaper ‘Poora Sach’ and there is no complaint or allegation that the deceased had ever published any wrong news, however the accused/convicts conspired to eliminate him in order to silent voice of the deceased forever. It is further submitted that having regard to gravity of the offence perpetrated in an organized manner, nature of offence and the deleterious effects of the same on society constitute aggravating factors and a strong judicial hand is needed to curb such crimes. It is also submitted that convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim has already been convicted for committing rapes of his own disciples and other three convicts are his staunch followers and the conduct of the convicts-accused calls for severest punishment prescribed under law and hence all convicts be sentenced with exemplary punishment as a message to deter other similar potential offenders from committing such heinous offences and showing any leniency in awarding sentence to the convicts would shock the collective conscience of society and accordingly prayer has been made to award capital punishment to the convicts, apart from awarding maximum punishments for other offences committed by two of the convicts. Learned Special PPs have also made a prayer to award compensation to CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and others 5 the victim family and further to direct the convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim to pay compensation to the State Government for spending money on his security. 8. On the other hand, Shri N.P.S.Waraich, learned counsel representing accused Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh has argued that in case of murder, life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence is an exception. It is submitted that in a civilized society there is no room for philosophy of ‘an eye for an eye’ and moreover currant penology leans towards reformatory attitude instead of being punitive in nature. It is argued that none of the convicts is a person beyond redemption and therefore no case for awarding capital punishment is made out. It is also submitted that convicts Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh have already undergone substantial period of incarceration and there is no evidence on record that their conduct in jail has not been good, which in turn reflects they are a reformed lot and need not be weeded out of this society. It is also submitted that none of these convicts have committed any other offence except the present one. It is also argued that as per settled law death penalty is awarded in rarest of rare cases i.e. where the murder is committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical and dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community, or when the murder is committed for a motive which evince total depravity and meanness, or when the crime is enormous in proportion etc., however none of such circumstances exists in the instant case, so as to warrant awarding of death penalty to the convicts. It is also argued that before opting for the death penalty, the circumstances of the ‘offender’ are CBI Versus Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim and others 6 also required to be taken into consideration along with circumstances of the ‘crime’. In support of his contention, learned counsel has placed reliance on Machhi Singh Vs State of Haryana, AIR 1983 SC 957 and Chhannu Lal Verma Vs State of Chhattishgarh, Criminal Appeal Nos.1482-1483 of 2018 decided on 28.11.2018. It is also submitted that as per the prosecution case, three family members of the deceased were present at the place of occurrence, but none of such family members ever got any scratch on their persons, meaning thereby that the attack was not brutal and the case does not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases.