Here's Why HC Dismissed Honeypreet's Transit Anticipatory Bail Plea

Several teams of Haryana Police have travelled across the country, including the Indo-Nepal border, to trace the whereabouts of Honeypreet.

The Delhi High Court today dismissed the transit anticipatory bail plea of Honeypreet Insan, facing charges of sedition and inciting violence after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim in twin rape cases.

The court's order was based on the grounds that she has been evading arrest and hence was not entitled to any discretionary relief.

While passing the order, Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal also said that the bail plea was filed in Delhi to buy time and delay the proceedings going on in a Panchlula court in Haryana.

The high court had reserved the order on the bail plea of the 36-year-old woman after hearing the arguments of her counsel and those of the Delhi and Haryana Police earlier in the day.

Priyanka Taneja alias Honeypreet, the adopted daughter of the jailed Dera chief, tops the list of 43 persons wanted by the Haryana Police in connection with incidents of violence that had followed Ram Rahim's conviction in the rape cases.

Transit anticipatory bail application is meant to seek protection against arrest during her transit from Delhi to Haryana for joining probe in the sedition case.

The plea was vehemently opposed by the counsel for Delhi and Haryana Police who said it was "a ploy to do 'forum shopping'" and, by giving a wrong address of a Delhi property, she was "hoodwinking" the court.

During the hearing, the high court had questioned Honeypreet for filing an anticipatory bail before it even though she was a permanent resident of Haryana and told her "the easiest way out is that you surrender".

Honeypreet, in her mid-30s and the Dera chief's closest aide since 2009, is on the run since August 25, hours after Ram Rahim was convicted. Police is on her trail for nearly a month and raids have been conducted Rajasthan, Bihar and Haryana as well as Nepal.