Rape was 'pitaji ki maafi' at Dera 'gufa': victims after Ram Rahim verdict

Chandigarh: In first hand accounts of the two survivors who were raped by self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in 2002, it has been revealed that he used to flaunt his clout and his status as god while raping them.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim, accused of raping two sadhvis in 2002, was on Friday, held guilty by the Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court of Panchkula.

In their depositions on oath before CBI judges the two sadhvis revealed that the word 'maafi' (pardon) was used as a code for rape, TOI reported.

The disciples used it among themselves to describe rapes.

Only female disciples were allowed to enter the 'powerful' baba's underground living quarters called 'gufa', a place where the Dera Sacha Sauda chief used to rape his sadhvis and other women, the report added.

The two rape survivors had recorded their statements in 2009 and 2010 before the judges. Gufa was a personalised underground chamber, which was Gurmeet's residence.

One of the survivors initially did not understand when female disciples asked her if she had received 'maafi by pitaji'. “This maafi became clear when I was called inside the gufa on August 28/29, 1999, and raped by Gurmeet,” a survivor from Yamunanagar in Haryana revealed.

The Dera chief is now lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail after Friday's conviction.

Another sadhvi, who used to teach at the Dera and was deposed on September 9, 2010, said, she became a follower because of her parents.

In September 1999, when she was guarding the 'gufa', she was called inside and raped by Gurmeet.