Two days after the arrest of jailed Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s controversial adopted daughter Honeypreet along the Chandigarh highway by the Haryana Police, Chief Minister Manohar Khattar Lal on Thursday raised doubts on Punjab police and suggested that the neighbouring state’s force may have played a role in helping her evade arrest for 38 days.
Khattar said that the role of Punjab Police in the case is suspicious, which he said will become clear during Honeypreet’s interrogation.
He said that the Punjab Police knew of the whereabouts of Honeypreet, and that it should have informed Haryana Police of the matter.
Honeypreet, who was arrested by the Haryana Police from the Zirakpur-Patiala highway, about 15 km from Chandigarh, was sent to six-day police remand by a Panchkula court on Wednesday.
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A woman accomplice, Sukhdeep Kaur, who was accompanying Honeypreet when she was arrested on Tuesday, was also arrested on charges of harbouring the fugitive.
India TV sources said that Honeypreet, who was said to be hiding in Nepal and Delhi, was actually at Sukhdeep’s place in Punjab’s Mohali district.
On Tuesday, Honeypreet, in an interview to a news channel, claimed that she was innocent. Describing the allegations against her as "baseless", she said that she was falsely implicated in the sedition case.
The Delhi High Court, on September 26, dismissed her anticipatory bail plea. A court in Panchkula had in September issued arrest warrants against top Dera functionaries -- Honeypreet, Aditya Insan and Pawan Insan. All three were booked by the Haryana Police on charges of sedition, inciting violence and being involved in a conspiracy to help the Dera chief escape after his conviction by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on August 25 on two counts of rape of female disciples in 1999.
