Image: ht
Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district is the birthplace of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. However, people in his hometown have expressed their anger after the Sauda head was found guilty of raping two of his women followers, by flushing down thousands of his photographs.
Devendra Rathore, the chief sanitation inspector of Sriganganagar, was shocked when he went to inspect a few choked drains of the city earlier this week.
He was startled to find that the drains were clogged not by dried leaves or solid waste, but by hundreds of photos of self -styled godman Ram Rahim Singh.
“The drains near Meera Chowk and Sukhadia Circle were choked by the photos which restricted the water flow. There were more than hundred photos along with posters of the godman which appears to have been thrown away by his devotees,” Rathore told HT.
A substantial section of the district’s population worshipped him earlier, but seems to have grown disillusioned with him following his rape conviction.
“We discovered more such photos in other areas of the city and they had to be fished out of the drains in order to start the water supply. Later, we dumped them at the garbage depot,” said Rathore.
He added that the choked drain had blocked the water flow in a large area.