A Panchkula court today extended the judicial custody of Honeypreet Insan till November 6 in a case related to the violence that followed the Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief’s rape conviction on August 25, which left 41 people dead and scores injured.
Honeypreet Insan, who calls herself the adopted daughter of Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, and Sukhdeep Kaur were presented before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Rohit Watts through video-conferencing from the Ambala central jail, defence counsel S K Garg Narwana said.
“Both Honeypreet Insan and Sukhdeep Kaur have been further remanded in judicial custody till November 6,” he said.
Priyanka Taneja (36), alias Honeypreet Insan, and Sukhdeep Kaur were arrested from Zirakpur-Patiala road in Punjab on October 3.
On October 4, the court had sent them to six-day police custody and after completion of their police remand, they were further remanded in police custody for another three days which ended on October 3.
After their police remand ended, the duo were sent to judicial custody till October 23.
Honeypreet Insan topped a list of 43 people “wanted” by the state police in connection with the violence post the Dera chief’s conviction.
Haryana Police had on September 1 issued a look-out notice against Honeypreet Insan and another key aide of the Dera chief, Aditya Insan, following apprehensions that they might try to “escape from the country”.
An arrest warrant was also issued against Honeypreet Insan, and two key Dera functionaries Aditya Insan and Pawan Insan, after Haryana Police moved an application in the Panchkula court.
Her name was also included in an FIR in which Dera functionaries Aditya Insan and Surinder Dhiman, among others, had been booked on the charge of sedition, inciting violence and arson, the police had said earlier.
Following the conviction of the Dera chief, violence had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa, the Dera headquarters, which claimed 41 lives and left scores of people injured.
The Dera chief has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping two women and is now lodged in jail.
The Statesman
