After Haryana Health minister Anil Vij, now former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has raised the demand of compensation for the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) followers who were killed during the violence which took place after the conviction of Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in rape case on 25 August.

Speaking to The Statesman, the senior Congress leader said that the government should compensate for the lives of those Dera followers, who were first allowed by the government to gather at Panchkula and then were shot dead by the police.

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He said, “I am not supporting for compensation for any criminal if any such person died in the said incident, but for those innocent people who were first allowed to reach and assemble at Panchkula and then were killed for protesting, the government should pay compensation.”

Without naming Haryana Education minister Ram Bilas Sharma who had defended the Dera followers march to Panchkula before the conviction of the sect head, Hooda said that the BJP government’s own minister had supported the gathering of Dera followers at Panchkula but it resulted into state government’s failure on law and order and led killing of more than 40 people.

The two-time CM further alleged that nearly 80 people had been killed in police firing in various agitations during the past three years of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in Haryana.

Perhaps, it is the maximum number of people killed in police firing in the history of Haryana, he added.

Hooda alleged that violence during the Jat agitations, sant Rampal episode and now DSS issues are the best examples of BJP government’s failure in Haryana.

He also announced to raise the dera violence issue during the coming Haryana Legislative Assembly Session commencing from 23 October.

Notably, earlier the controversial Haryana minister Anil Vij had sought for compensation for the Dera followers were killed in police action on 25 August following the conviction of the Dera chief by the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court at Panchkula on 25 August.

On the pattern of compensation and jobs given by the Haryana government to kin of those killed in Jat agitations, Vij has sought compensation and jobs for kin of those Dera followers killed in the said violence.

According to Vij, if the state government could provid the same in case of agitators killed in Jat agitation, why not for the Dera followers?

However, the Punjab CM and Congress heavyweight in the neighboring state, Amarinder Singh that no compensation would be given by his government to law breakers from the state who were killed in the Panchkula violence.

A total 41 persons were killed while more than 200 injured in clashes with the security forces in Panchkula and Sirsa following the sect head’s convicted in rape case. The self-styled godman is presently lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail, serving 20 years imprisonment for raping female followers.