CHANDIGARH -- Punjab is on high alert ahead of a Haryana court verdict on Friday in a rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The police have received 75 companies of central forces to maintain law and order, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Tuesday.
"Security forces have been pressed into service in border areas and the central government has already been requested to provide 115 companies of paramilitary forces," Additional Chief Secretary Ram Niwas said.
Anti-social elements or any other person who would try to disturb law and order would be arrested, he said.
Niwas said leave of police personnel has been canceled and home guards would be called on duty.
"All borders of the state have been sealed and inter-state and inter-district activities of vehicles are being closely monitored," he said.
The sect chief, who has lakhs of followers in Punjab, Haryana, and other states, has been accused by a former female follower of raping her more than once inside the sprawling Dera campus on the outskirts of Sirsa town in Haryana, 260 km from Chandigarh. The case hearing has been going on since 2007.
The people should accept any court judgment, said Amarinder Singh, appealing to all to maintain peace.
Meanwhile, Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora on Tuesday visited Bathinda and other sensitive districts bordering Haryana for a first-hand assessment of the security arrangements.
He reviewed the arrangements in the district and instructed all police personnel to remain alert to any attempt to disturb the harmony of the state, an official statement said.
Besides Bhatinda, Arora also visited Mansa, Moga, Patiala, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali towns.
Heavy police deployment has been made in Bathinda, which shares its border with Sirsa, where the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda are located.
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