Evidence found during Dera Sacha Sauda search ops show followers may have deserted Gurmeet Ram Rahim

The search and seize operation on the 700 acres property that is home to Dera Sacha Sauda and followers of convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is comical. The ‘loot’ captured in the operation that ended on Sunday is not only impressive but also intriguing. [caption id=“attachment_4032099” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Evidence discovered during Dera Sacha Sauda search operation. Image courtesy: Manoj Dhaka/101Reporters[/caption] The devotees have had two weeks to get rid of the incriminating evidence and yet, all the contraband was just lying there for the authorities to pick up. You might as well have put up signposts in neon lights indicating where all the goodies were stored and where his evil empire was preying on children. Two minors were discovered ensconced in Singh’s private quarters days after he was sentenced. Did no one think to get them out of there and into safety? And are Singh’s disciples so dumb that they would leave two little girls in suspicious confines for the authorities to so easily discover this sleazy dimension. Then the litany of hanky panky. He has an explosives factory on the premises replete with chemicals. The police also discovered an empty box of AK-47 cartridges and supposedly one rifle (33 assault weapons were surrendered to police earlier by Dera Sacha Sauda followers), a Lexus vehicle without plates, some kind of parallel currency through plastic markers like you probably get in a casino, a fibreglass tunnel for a direct access to his sexual romps, a mountain of shoes that Imelda Marcos would have loved…and now they are digging up the landscape in search for actual skeletons.

Haryana: Huge cache of arms recovered by Police from #DeraSachaSauda HQ in Sirsa. pic.twitter.com/2yPVewn05L

— ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2017

Fine, Singh’s hundreds of live-in disciples are so catatonic in their devotion that they dared not touch his things even though common sense indicated that getting rid of all this illegal stuff was necessary to save their own skins. This was not a sudden CBI or IT raid, this was a consolidated ongoing exercise with sufficient warning. One would have expected the place would have been cleaned up and everyone to be chanting religious songs with puritanical fervour, dressed in spartan white, when the cops arrived. By the time the police catalogue Singh’s sins the 20 years are going to look like a passing shower to the deluge that is coming. And this brings us to the next intriguing question: could he have achieved a city within a city without collusion with the governments in power at various times and the bureaucratic infrastructure that came with them? When did he purchase the 700 acres of land? Or, was it gifted? Was it a farm land? Who allowed it to be gated and how many signatures are there on the documents…and whose signatures? You just do not take possession of 700 acres of land by sauntering into the place. Whether Manohar Lal Khattar’s government has inherited the problem or been a promoter is superseded by the fact that it is in power and must answer these questions. Did no one in authority ever stop and say, whoa, what’s going on in there? Singh didn’t rob a mom-and-pop store with a Saturday night special, he created a country with its own currency, its own rules, and its self-sufficient fiefdom. And he was arming his followers in front of the government’s eyes. Just for starters, how did the Lexus and the weaponry get there? Was this man planning to start a war? Clearly, as far as the law is concerned Singh believed he was above it.