Chandigarh, Aug 24 (IANS): The Punjab government has declared a public holiday in all its offices here on Friday, the day a CBI court will pronounce its judgment in a rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
All government offices located in Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, will be closed on Friday, a government spokesperson told IANS.
A Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, has asked the sect chief to appear in the court on Friday when it will pronounce its judgment.
The case has been going on since 2007.
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 in the Dera campus on the outskirts of Sirsa town in Haryana, 260 km from Chandigarh.