Chandigarh: In a startling revelation, it has come to light that there are over 600 skeletons inside the Dera Sacha Sauda’s Sirsa headquarters, a “mass grave” of sorts.

P.R. Nain, senior vice-chairman of the Dera Sacha Sauda, who was questioned by the Sirsa police SIT, has said that nearly 600 skeletons can be found buried inside the Dera headquarters in Sirsa.

Mr Nain claimed these were bones of devotees buried by their families in the belief it would give “moksha” (salvation). Deputy superintendent of police Kuldeep Beniwal, who heads the SIT which questioned Mr Nain, told the media: “They have a complete record of people whose bones were buried in the dera, and Nain has handed over a list to the police.” Mr Nain also told the SIT the dera had started planting saplings on the land where the skeletons were buried based on the advice of a German scientist.

A day before search operations began at the dera under the supervision of A.K.S. Pawar, the court commissioner appointed by the Punjab and Haryana high court, dera mouthpiece Sach Kahoon admitted that human remains were buried inside the premises.

Mr Nain’s revelations assume significance in light of the allegations by Khatta Singh, a former driver of Ram Rahim Singh, that several people were murdered at the instance of the dera chief and their bodies were buried inside the dera.

Khatta had been Ram Rahim’s driver for nine years and has moved a plea before the CBI special court to allow him to depose as a witness in two murder cases against the dera head. Khatta revealed that among the people murdered at the instance of Ram Rahim was one Gora Singh, a teenage boy.

Self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is now undergoing a 20-year jail sentence for having raped two sadhvis of his dera.