From plotting mutiny to strong-arming politicians, the controversial godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's followers left no stone unturned to get him acquitted in last year.
"Tell them that they are in power because of us."
From plotting mutiny to strong-arming politicians, the controversial godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's followers left no stone unturned to get him acquitted in last year.
According to a transcript accessed by The Times Of India, the followers also tried to mount pressure on the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MLAs and MPs to get them to influence the judgement in favour of their leader saying that it was only Dera that paved the way for party's victory in 2014.
Ahead on the October 2014 assembly polls in Haryana, a group of senior BJP leaders had met Gurmeet to gain his support in the state.
According to the Haryana police reports, which came soon after the violence in Panchkula area that killed 36 Dera people, the sect's political wing head asked their followers to do the same. In August last year, a special CBI court had sentenced Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in prison after his conviction in two rape cases.
One of the transcripts accessed by the newspaper reads: "BJP ki local committee ko, local MLA ya MP ya phir kisi aur se Khattar ko kahlwa do ki ya to faisla hamare haq mein kar do varna aap jano ya hum, apko hamne hi banaya hai (Go and tell local BJP MLAs and MPs that they should convey to (Haryana CM) Khattar that the decision (court order) should be in our favour. Tell them that they are in power because of us."
The legally intercepted calls show that Dera followers were asked to contact BJP leaders ahead of the CBI court verdict.
Six days before the conviction, a conversation between Subhash Chander and Babru Bhan, senior dera functionaries from Hisar, was intercepted in which Bhan is reported by TOI as saying, "The local BJP committee or local MLA or MP should be asked to convey to Khattar the decision should be in our favour otherwise you know that you were made CM by us".