Security up ahead of today's hearing

Chandigarh: Contingents of paramilitary troops and the Haryana Police have been deployed in Panchkula as security arrangements were tightened ahead of Saturday's hearing in two murder cases against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Fifty-year-year-old Ram Rahim Singh will appear before a CBI special court here through video conferencing from the Rohtak jail where is lodged after being sentenced to 20 years in prison in two rape cases. The CBI court is hearing the cases of murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

"We have made adequate security arrangements ahead of the hearing in the cases," Haryana Director General of Police B S Sandhu said here today.

Contingents of paramilitary troops and the Haryana Police have been stationed in Panchkula to prevent any untoward incident, he said.

"The hearing in the cases against Ram Rahim, who is lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak, will be conducted through video conferencing," Sandhu said.

Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 year in jail sentence on August 28 in the two rape cases by the special CBI Court.

Several parts of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan had witnessed large-scale violence following his conviction in the two rape cases on August 25.

CBI counsel H P S Verma said, "The final arguments in the two murders cases will start on Saturday."

Sirsa-based journalist Chhatrapati was shot at in October 2002 after the evening newspaper 'Poora Sach', owned by him, published an anonymous letter narrating how women were allegedly being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa. He died later.