Chandigarh: While harrowed residents of Panchkula kept wondering as to how thousands of Dera Sacha Sauda supporters gathered and caused a riot in their quiet little town despite curfew orders, it emerged that there was a clerical error in the order issued by the Panchkula DCP to impose Section 144 in the area.
Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is used to prohibit an assembly of four or more persons in a sensitive area.
It, however, has emerged that the order issued by Panchkula DCP Ashok Kumar did not mention anything about the assembly of persons ahead of the CBI court verdict in a rape case against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Instead it only barred people from carrying weapons.
The Haryana Home Department has now suspended Kumar.
He has been put under suspension with immediate effect, an official order said. During the period of suspension, he will report to the office of DGP, Haryana, Panchkula, it said.
It was reported a day before that the Dera followers who had gathered in Panchkula had also horded petrol, diesel and weapons, while the authority did almost nothing to prevent it.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday, has failed to explain how his administration allowed the build-up of the Dera Sacha Sauda mob in Panchkula.
At least 31 people have died and 350 injured in the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
Two companies of Army and 10 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in Panchkula now, while police have asked locals to stay indoors.
Not just in Haryana, the violence spread to Punjab and Delhi as well, with Dera Sacha Sauda followers burning buses and train bogeys in the capital.
CBI judge Jagdeep Singh held Gurmeer Ram Rahim Singh, the 50-year-old flamboyant Dera Sacha Sauda chief, guilty of rape in a case that was registered on the basis of an anonymous written complaint in 2002 that he had sexually exploited two female followers.
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