The Haryana government has sought video conferencing facilities at a special CBI court in Panchkula,so that Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim is not required to appear before it in person. A CBI special judge is scheduled to hear two murder cases against the Dera chief on May 28,and the government fears that should Gurmeet Ram Rahim appear in court,up to 2 lakh followers could follow him into the city,leading to a serious law and order problem. Home Secretary Sameer Mathur has written to Ankur Gupta,MD,Haryana Electronics Development Corporation (HARTRON) asking for video-conferencing facilities at the court by tomorrow. It would be appropriate to mention that on 28th May,2011 the high profile Dera Sacha Sauda case is coming up in the CBI special court at Panchkula, Mathur has written. If the video-conferencing facility is not operational well before that,the main accused namely Baba Ram Rahim of Dera Sacha Sauda would be required to make a personal appearance in the court and this could lead to major law and order problems as had happened earlier at Ambala during his appearance. It is in strategic public interest that security problems do not develop in Panchkula, Mathur said. The Baba (accused) should fulfill his legal obligations through video-conferencing. In view of this, Mathur added,it is imperative that video-conferencing facility be installed and made operational in the. court well before 28.05.2011. Mathur has asked Gupta to treat this case as urgent on grounds of connectivity as well as security and public safety. As decided by government,you are requested to take all necessary steps for installing and operationalisation of the video-conferencing system in the CBI special court before the 26th of May,2011, he wrote,assuring that expenditure incurred will be met from government budget. Video-conferencing in courts is implemented by HARTRON and funded by the justice department under the overall supervision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In Ambala,where the CBI court was earlier,video-conferencing was available. In Panchkula,the district courts complex has video-conferencing facilities,but the room is too small for hearings. The Dera chief is required to appear in the murder cases of Dera member Ranjeet Singh and journalist Ram Chander Chatterpati. A rape case against him will come up for hearing on June 4.
