A be­numbed-state is find­ing it dif­fi­cult to con­trol its own Franken­stein mon­ster as fear of a judge­ment in a sex­ual abuse and as­sault case hangs on his shoul­ders with pos­si­ble reper­cus­sions from fol­low­ers, cre­at­ing a huge fear psy­chosis in Pun­jab, Haryana and Chandi­garh. The au­thor teas­ingly hides the iden­tity of the de­fen­dant.

Some­body has a nui­sance value. Some­one has been ac­cused by his fol­low­ers of sex­ual as­sault and crim­i­nal at­tacks. Some­body may be pun­ished for out­rag­ing the mod­esty of a woman by the courts.

This some­one wanted to im­i­tate the tenth mas­ter Guru Gob­ind Singh. This some­one was pow­er­ful enough to make in­roads into DS­GMC and SGPC lead­er­ship and get a par­don from the Akal Takht. Well, al­most.

In clashes be­tween his fol­low­ers eu­phemisti­cally called In­sans and Premis, de­vout Sikhs have been ha­rassed, de­tained and killed by the po­lice.

This some­one has pro­duced, di­rected and acted in movies. He dresses like a movie star and he con­ducts world-record mak­ing clean­li­ness and blood do­na­tion dri­ves.

Even as an ac­cused, he is not an out­caste. Over the years that the sex­ual as­sault case con­tin­ued in the Panchkula court, min­is­ters, mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, chief min­is­ters, the who of Haryana pol­i­tics and ad­min­is­tra­tion have un­abashedly paid obei­sance to him.

“He wanted to im­i­tate the tenth mas­ter Guru Gob­ind Singh. This some­one was pow­er­ful enough to make in­roads into DS­GMC and SGPC lead­er­ship and get a par­don from the Akal Takht. Well, al­most.”

The state pro­vides him Z-plus se­cu­rity at the ex­pense of the ex­che­quer and ex­pen­sive in­stru­ments were pur­chased to make his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the court pro­ceed­ings through video-con­fer­enc­ing pos­si­ble. In De­cem­ber 2014, the Pun­jab and Haryana High court opined that train­ing of pri­vate com­man­dos and arm­ing them with il­le­gal weapons (by the Sirsa dera) to pro­tect some in­di­vid­u­als would def­i­nitely pose a chal­lenge “not only to the ju­di­ciary, but also to the State”.

Me­dia is re­port­ing that now the cult fol­low­ers are threat­en­ing “that in case the de­ci­sion goes against their head, they will re­sort to vi­o­lence”. The im­po­tent state can­not re­act against such ut­ter­ances, can it?

So­cial me­dia abounds with fake and real mes­sages from the po­lice and ad­min­is­tra­tion. Peo­ple are can­celling trips and those who have to go are plan­ning for air travel. Leave for po­lice and health per­son­nel have been can­celled.

Po­lit­i­cal bod­ies who have ben­e­fit­ted from the ac­cused’s pa­tron­age and favours are keep­ing their fin­gers crossed. Pho­to­graphic ev­i­dence notwith­stand­ing, they know how to switch sides should their ex­pec­ta­tions and cal­cu­la­tions go wrong and hay­wire.

“On Au­gust 25, 2017 at 2.30 pm, con­clud­ing a 15-year-old case, with nearly 10 years of trial, it will be be­tween the Spe­cial Court judge Jagdeep Singh ver­sus the “Mes­sen­ger of God” who has held the en­tire state to ran­som.”

Be pre­pared to with­stand the on­slaught of his hereti­cal cult. Be warned that you have to pre­pare and pro­tect your­self against pos­si­ble hooli­gan­ism that may be let loose, Sec­tion 144 and hun­dreds of com­pa­nies of re­serve po­lice notwith­stand­ing. More than a hun­dred thou­sand fol­low­ers, armed with sticks and more have made a bee­line to Panchkula, bor­der­ing Chandi­garh. The Cricket sta­dium in Sec­tor 16 has been de­clared a sub-jail. The state and po­lice ma­chin­ery ap­pears to be on ten­ter­hooks.

This some­one may or may not pre­sent him­self in court as di­rected by the Panchkula CBI Court. On Au­gust 25, 2017 at 2.30 pm, con­clud­ing a 15-year-old case, with nearly 10 years of trial, it will be the Spe­cial Court judge Jagdeep Singh ver­sus the “Mes­sen­ger of God” who has held the en­tire state to ran­som and is now talk­ing of self-less ser­vice on twit­ter.

Will neme­sis catch up? Will the state be­come im­po­tent again? Meet­ings of the ad­min­is­tra­tion, po­lice, politi­cians are be­ing held on an hour to hour ba­sis. The whole state is on its toes, lit­er­ally.

The Franken­stein mon­ster is on the leash. He is Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh -names from three re­li­gions but with wis­dom of none.