Panchkula, April 21 -- A special CBI court in Panchkula on Monday granted permission for a second witness residing in the United States to testify via video conferencing (VC) in the ongoing castration case involving Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and two others. While Gurmeet Ram Rahim joined the proceedings through VC, co-accused Dr Pankaj Garg and Dr MP Singh appeared in person before the magistrate. During the resumed hearing on April 17, the scheduled cross-examination of the whistleblower and prime witness was deferred after he reported being medically unfit to depose. The witness explained that he had received an eye injection on April 15 and was suffering from acute migraine pain, prompting a request for a one-week adjournment. With no objections from the CBI or the defence, the court rescheduled his evidence for May 8, setting a session from 3.30 pm to 8.30 pm. Additionally, the court fixed May 15 and 16 for further prosecution evidence, directing the public prosecutor to identify the witnesses for those dates. Regarding the new witness in the USA, the court had previously kept the application pending to first test the technical viability of overseas testimony with Prosecution Witness-1 (PW-1) in New York. Following the successful examination of PW-1 via VC-facilitated by a document visualiser-the counsel for the complainant argued that there was no longer a logical basis to deny the second witness's request. As the defence did not oppose the move, the court allowed the application. However, noting that the new witness resides in California, the court directed that a letter be sent to the Consulate General of India in New York to obtain contact details for officials at the Indian Embassy in San Francisco to facilitate the testimony from the West Coast. The case was registered by the CBI, New Delhi, on January 7, 2015, under Sections 120-B, 326, 417 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code against Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Dr Pankaj Garg and Dr MP Singh. According to the prosecution, Ram Rahim, in alleged connivance with doctors, orchestrated the castration of around 400 followers, claiming it would bring them "closer to God"....