'Dera accounts to be attached, Sirsa calm'

SIRSA: No untoward incident was reported in Sirsa town after the pronouncement of the quantum of sentence of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been convicted in a rape case, a senior Haryana government official said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters here, IAS officer V Umashankar, who has been assigned the special duty to assist the Sirsa administration, said the district authorities had ordered the attachment of the Sirsa dera's accounts and compensation to those affected in the violence earlier could be given from these. Umashankar, who is the commissioner of municipal corporation of Gurugram, said the Sirsa deputy commissioner had ordered the attachment of the dera's accounts and compensation to people affected by the violence following the sect chief's conviction in rape case on August 25 may be given from these as per court orders.
"There was no report of any untoward incident and I hope that peace will be maintained," he said.
Excluding the permanent residents of the area, many of whom were also Dera followers, the number of other supporters in the sect's headquarters in Sirsa was not more than a thousand, he added.
About the possibility of firearms inside the sect headquarters, Umashankar said some weapons were registered in the name of dera and some in the names of individuals.
From the day of Gurmeet's conviction by the special CBI court in Panchkula, the state authorities had worked to ensure that the violent mob doesn't move towards Sirsa.
"We were conscious that if such a mob comes towards Sirsa and indulges in violence and arson, then it would have been very difficult to control and we had accordingly deployed our forces. Our second objective was that if the violence takes place, we have to contain it in a specific area and prevent it from spreading," he said.
"The third objective was to exercise maximum restraint, which was not entirely possible in this kind of situation, but still we had to exercise it and not allow it to escalate.
" I am happy to tell you that due to the alertness of our forces, with the support of Army, personal leadership of Sirsa DC and SP, incidents of arson and looting were prevented," Umashankar added.