Honeypreet Questioned Till 3 Am At Chandi Mandir PS in Pachkula
CHANDIGRAH : Honeypreet , the “adopted daughter” of jailed Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was questioned well into the night at Chandi Mandir police station in Haryana’s Panchkula after her arrest yesterday. Sources say she was questioned till 3 am on the charges against her, which include sedition and rioting. She was briefly taken to hospital after she complained of chest pain in the night. Doctors reportedly declared she was fine.
“We just want to go into the details of the violence that took place in Panchkula, and hence, will be interrogating her for the same. She will be produced before a court tomorrow,” Police Commissioner A S Chawla said. The police will also interrogate her about her whereabouts after the August 25 violence. “We will investigate about it soon, but it will take some time,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Mukesh Malhotra, who is heading the SIT constituted to probe the violence following the 25 August conviction of the Dera chief, is questioning Honeypreet. “We need to investigate her role in the Panchkula violence on 25 August and hence we will seek her police remand,” he added.
Honeypreet will be produced before a court in Panchkula today where police will seek her remand, he added. Chawla said another woman was accompanying Honeypreet at the time of her arrest. “Honeypreet was travelling in an Innova SUV and was accompanied by another woman,” the police commissioner said. “Who supported whom, who did the wrong, which all places did she hide and who gave her shelter, all these things will come to the fore when we question her at length,” he said.
Honeypreet was questioned by the officials of the Special Investigation Team of the Haryana Police on Wednesday. She is likely to be produced in court on Wednesday afternoon. Honeypreet, remained fugitive for 38 days after she was booked by the Haryana Police on charges of sedition. She was arrested on Tuesday from the Zirakpur-Patiala highway, about 15 kilometres from Chandigarh.
“She was evasive in her replies about her whereabouts and her role in inciting violence and providing funding to those behind the violence. We are interrogating her and will seek her police remand,” a police officer involved in the questioning told IANS.A woman accomplice, Sukhdeep Kaur, who was accompanying Honeypreet when she was arrested on Tuesday, was also arrested on charges of harbouring the fugitive.
The 36-year-old, who calls herself ‘Papa’s Angel’ on social media, went missing the same day, after escorting the Dera chief on a special chopper from Panchkula to a Rohtak jail. She has been accused of trying to help him escape and also instigating the rioting. “She was asked many questions on the Panchkula Riots, where she was after that day and the people she was in touch with,” said a police officer, who revealed that she was “evasive”.
Yesterday, Honeypreet told a News channel that the charges against her are false and also defended her relationship with Ram Rahim, who is serving 20 years in prison for two rapes. She said she was “devastated and depressed” by the allegations against Ram Rahim and her. “When Papa went away (was jailed), my world came crashing down,” she said.
Lashing out at her ex-husband Vishwas Gupta, who had alleged that their father-daughter relationship was a sham meant for devotees, she said: “I cannot understand how anyone can point fingers at pious relations that are there between a father and his daughter. What proof do they have?” She also rubbished the rape charge against Ram Rahim. “We call him ‘papa coach’. Crores of women and girls have been empowered by Papaji. You believe two women and not millions others?”
