Police have arrested Honeypreet Insan (pictured) the adopted daughter and confidante of jailed sect leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh
Police have arrested Honeypreet Insan, the adopted daughter and confidante of jailed sect leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
Honeypreet was on the run for over a month following violence unleashed by supporters of the guru In Haryana when a court found him guilty of rape.
Cops took Honeypreet, real name Priyanka Taneja, into custody soon after she gave an exclusive, explosive interview to AAJ TAK-INDIA TODAY TV.
Honeypreet claimed she had no role in the violence that broke out in parts of Haryana and Punjab after her ‘Papaji’ was convicted in August of raping two female followers in 2002.
‘They accuse me of being involved in riots, but do they have any evidence against me? I am innocent. Have you seen me anywhere inciting riots? I was not present there at all,’ she said.
Honeypreet was arrested by the Haryana police from Zirakpur- Patiala road in Punjab.
She will be produced in court on Wednesday, Panchkula police commissioner AS Chawla said.
She describes herself on Twitter as, ‘Papa’s Angel, philanthropist, director, editor, actress!’
Guru – Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh – was found guilty Friday of two rapes committed in 2002
Thirty people were killed and more than 350 injured in the violence and clashes between Ram Rahim supporters and security personnel.
Soon after, Haryana police named Honeypreet among its 43 most-wanted people. After the Dera Sacha Sauda leader was convicted, the ‘father-daughter’ had requested the court to allow them to live together.
Honeypreet moved an application through her lawyer while the self-styled godman filed a petition. The court, however, threw out the requests.
Honeypreet’s estranged husband had claimed before Mail Today that she and the guru had sexual relations.
Priyanka Taneja had married Vishwas Gupta, grandson of former Gharaunda MLA Rulia Ram Gupta, in 1999. She was introduced to the Dera and Ram Rahim after her marriage.
Indian spiritual guru, who calls himself Saint Dr Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, arrives for a press conference ahead of the release of his new film MSG, The Warrior Lion Heart, in New Delhi, India
But 10 years later, Honeypreet – who was given this name by the sect leader himself – came to Dera Sacha Sauda, complaining about harassment by Vishwas Gupta.
Dismissing allegations about her relationship with Ram Rahim, Honeypreet said, ‘A fatherdaughter relationship is so pure; I don’t understand why it is being questioned… I want to ask can’t a father touch her daughter?
‘What evidence do they have to raise such questions?’
Honeypreet had become an expert in giving police the slip.
After news of her being spotted in Nepal came out, police tried to track her down but failed.
She then evaded cops in Ram Rahim’s native village Gurusar Modia too and fled to Delhi to meet her lawyer. She revealed all these locations during the interview.
‘I am not guilty. I was fulfilling the duty of a daughter. I went inside the court with my father but I did not speak. Where have you seen me talking or inciting riots?’ she said.
‘On the day of the verdict, we went to the court, believing that everything would be fine and that we would be back in the evening. But after hearing the verdict, our brains stopped working. In such a situation, would we create a conspiracy against anyone?’
The rape allegations against the Dera chief surfaced in an anonymous letter sent in 2002 to the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Scrutiny of the ashram grew when a journalist investigating the sect was shot dead the same year.
When asked by this reporter about her reaction to some erstwhile Dera followers, including Gupta, blaming her for the Panchkula violence, Honeypreet said, ‘Who are these people in the community? Are they important? I do not want to talk about them.’
Claiming that she had become helpless after her ‘father’s’ conviction and imprisonment, she said she was unaware of the legal procedures and was suffering from depression.
She said she did what people advised her to do. While she was absconding, Honeypreet said she visited her brother’s in-laws in Hanumangarh and stayed there for two days.
She left before police reached there looking for her on August 29.
Then she stayed at a Dera follower’s house in Rajasthan’s Sangaria city, after which she was spotted at a shopping mall in Udaipur.