Gurmeet can't pay: Lawyer

ARNAB GANGULY, TT, Chandigarh, Oct. 9: Gurmeet Ram Rahim's lawyer today said the imprisoned Dera Sacha Sauda chief had renounced the world and was not in a position to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the two disciples he has been convicted of raping.

Counsel S.K. Garg Narwana said Gurmeet, now lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail, wouldn't be able to pay the amount as his properties had been attached.

The lawyer's claim came before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Sudhir Mittal after Punjab and Haryana High Court admitted Gurmeet's appeal against his conviction in the two rape cases.

The bench, however, asked Gurmeet to deposit the amount as a fixed deposit in a nationalised bank. The amount will be disbursed only after the court's order.

A CBI special court had on August 28 jailed the Dera chief for 20 years and ordered him to pay Rs 30 lakh as fine to the victims.

A report submitted by the M.L. Khattar government before the high court has pegged the value of the Dera headquarters in Sirsa at Rs 1,453 crore. The report was submitted on the directions of the high court, which had instructed the Dera to compensate for the violence unleashed by its supporters in Panchkula and elsewhere that left 41 people dead on August 25 following Gurmeet's conviction. It is estimated that the Dera owns properties worth Rs 1,600 crore throughout Haryana.

"The market value of the property could be much higher because this is a conservative estimate drawn on the basis of the collector's rate," said a government official.

In prison, Gurmeet is growing vegetables on the instructions of the jail staff and earns Rs 20 daily, the same amount earned by an unskilled labourer.

Gurmeet's counsel had filed an appeal against the CBI special court's verdict saying the investigative agency had not subjected him to a "potency" test. The Dera chief had claimed before the trial court that he had not been "virile" since 1990, years before the rape charges were pressed against him.

In their complaints, both the victims had claimed they were raped by Gurmeet between 1999 and 2001. "The trial court had cited that his claim was not substantiated as he had fathered two daughters. This is totally erroneous," Narwana said.

Gurmeet also has a son.