PANCHKULA: The adopted daughter of rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Honeypreet Insan, has been arrested last week from a highway in Punjab, over a month after she was absconding. The Panchkula police claimed she was the main handler of cash generated and distributed in the Sirsa-headquartered Dera. Several family members of Gurmeet were even “living at her mercy” as she was the one giving them cash.
She is particularly alleged to have distributed £1,25,000 to some Dera men to arrange logistics for inciting violence in Panchkula on August 25 if the dera chief was convicted in the rape case. Police Commissioner AS Chawla addressed a press conference saying, “We have evidence, including recovery of Rs 24,00,000 from one of the dera followers that clearly indicated that money used to incite violence was routed through her.” Sources said the woman's role came to the limelight after Gurmeet's private security in-charge Preetam Singh was arrested. Sources added that the dera chief’s private secretary Rakesh Kumar too had testified on Honeypreet’s role in the violence.
A senior official said, “A lookout notice was issued for her with the intervention of senior officials that very night when it was learnt that she had eloped from outside the Rohtak jail. That was to make sure she did not leave the country.” Chawla said she was “showing resistance” during the interrogation. “She was taken to different places in order to certify what she said in her interrogation. But she is misleading in many of her statements. If she will not cooperate with the police, we will seek her further remand when she would be produced before local court.”
Honeypreet, in her mid-30s, has been the closest aide of Ram Rahim since 2009. Her ex-husband Vishwas Gupta had alleged illicit relations between the two. She starred as the lead heroine in five films he directed, produced and acted in over a period of three years.
