Collusion at top level led to Haryana violence: Yogendra Yadav

New Delhi, Aug 28: The violence in Haryana after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted in a rape case was a result of "active political collusion" affected at the "highest quarters", said Swaraj India President Yogendra Yadav here on Monday.

"Third time in three years, the Haryana government was paralyzed in the face of a serious challenge to law and order," he said at a media meet at the Press Club of India here.

"This time it was not just administrative ineptitude as in confrontation with Baba Rampal sect in Hisar in 2015 or political procrastination as in state-wide violence during Jat reservation stir in 2016 but active political collusion from the highest quarters," he alleged

What makes this worse is that the violence was allowed to take place despite knowledge of the time, venue and nature of violence by Dera supporters, he added.

Slamming Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, he asked why was such a large crowd of supporters allowed to gather in Panchkula, despite more than an adequate warning from the state intelligence, media and the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

"Why did two Cabinet Ministers, Ram Bilas Sharma and Anil Vij visit the Dera headquarters merely 10 days before the verdict was to be announced? Why did Sharma announce that Section 144 (providing for prohibitory orders) cannot be used 'against faith'?" he asked.

Yogendra Yadav also charged the BJP government with hiding the "deal" between the Dera chief and the party at the time of 2014 assembly elections as mentioned by his daughters after the verdict and demanded the Haryana government be dismissed for failing to uphold constitutional order.

Meanwhile, prominent lawyer and Swaraj Abhiyan National President Prashant Bhushan, welcoming the conviction and sentencing of the Dera chief, said that he would approach the court to seek that Gurmeet Ram Rahim be shifted to a jail outside Haryana, preferably a state not ruled by the BJP, so that he does not enjoy a VIP treatment while serving his sentence.

Bhushan also demanded that BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj, who had expressed support for the Dera chief after his conviction and attacked the judiciary, should be prosecuted for inciting violence, attempt to intimidate Judiciary and contempt of court.