Airports on alert to prevent Honeypreet from sneaking out of country

Chandigarh: The Haryana Police on Friday issued a lookout notice against the jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief's adopted daughter Honeypreet Insaan and another key aide following apprehensions that they might try to "escape from the country".

The step was taken following questioning of another arrested functionary of the sect in connection with an alleged conspiracy to facilitate Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim's escape after he was convicted of raping two disciples, police said here.

Panchkula Police Commissioner A S Chawla said they have to question Honeypreet and Dera spokesperson Aditya Insaan in the wake of new "revelations" and have issued a look out notice against them.

Honeypreet is among those considered as likely successor of Ram Rahim. However, a sect leader Vipashna Insaan had said earlier that there was no move to immediately name a successor.

Chawla said, "On being interrogated, Surinder Dhiman Insaan, who was arrested earlier, revealed that Honeypreet Insaan and Aditya Insaan might escape from the country. So we have issued lookout notice against them,"

Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak, had been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a CBI court for raping two of his disciples in 2002.

Police are looking into allegations that the Dera chief's aides had colluded with police personnel to try to facilitate his escape after he was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula.

Airports and bus and railway stations across the country have been put on alert, Chawla said.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the violence and arson after the Dera head's conviction on Friday rose to 41.

The total number of deaths in Panchkula was 35 while six persons died in Sirsa, the sect's headquarters, he said

Honeypreet had accompanied Ram Rahim when he was brought to the special CBI court in Panchkula for the pronouncement of verdict in a 15-year-old rape case. She also travelled along with Dera head in a chopper which ferried them to Rohtak from Panchkula after his conviction.

An FIR was earlier lodged in Panchkula police station following a statement by a newspaper reporter against Aditya and Surinder Dhiman Insaan. The duo has been booked for sedition.

Dhiman was taken into custody on Thursday and sent to police remand for a week by a court in Panchkula.