How did a nondescript young man from a farming family become the head of a quasi-religious sect with a million followers, willing to die and kill for their ‘Pitaji’?
The story of the rise of ‘Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan Maharaj’ of the wildly popular Dera Sacha Sauda, was anything but ordinary. It allegedly involved gory murders, sexual exploitation, forced castrations, private militias, illegal trade in arms and opium, and land grab at an untold scale until the self-styled godman was convicted for one of his many crimes in August 2017. The book Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim A Decade-long Investigation by Anurag Tripathi is the first ever journalistic research into the reported criminal activities at the Dera. Published by Penguin and set to be launched this month the book originates in 2007 and in the years since the author continued to document those waging lonely battles for justice against the powerful godman. This book is as much about the grit and determination of ordinary citizens fighting power systems, as it is about the depravity of a man and how he was ultimately brought to justice.
Anurag Tripathi is an investigative journalist with sixteen years of experience spanning print, electronic and digital media.
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