Haryana yesterday said it got eight additional companies of paramilitary forces and more security personnel to handle potential violence if a court finds the controversial chief of a religious sect guilty in a rape case tomorrow.
Additional Chief Secretary Ram Niwas said the government would also call the army if need be and even impose a curfew.
A Special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula adjoining Chandigarh will give its verdict against Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh tomorrow.
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the local administration has declared a three-day holiday for all schools in Chandigarh.
The Haryana government has also decided that all colleges and libraries in Panchkula district would remain closed till tomorrow.
The hearing has been going on since 2007.
The sect chief, who has millions of followers in Punjab, Haryana, and other states, has been accused by a former female follower of raping her multiple times inside the sprawling Dera campus on the outskirts of Sirsa town in Haryana, 260km from Chandigarh.
Elaborating about the security arrangements, Niwas told reporters here that about 2,000 Home Guards have been called to join duty to manage crowds and adequate arrangements have been made to deal with any situation.
Exhorting the sect followers to keep faith in judiciary, he said orders have been issued to all deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to take preventive steps according to the intelligence inputs being received.
Replying to a question on converting government buildings as temporary jails, he said this has been conveyed to the director general of prisons.
The additional chief secretary said undesirable material has been recovered from some vehicles during police checking in the state.




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