Rape convict godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan has been jailed for twenty years for raping two of his women followers and would serve two sentences of ten years each consecutively. A special court convened inside the jail in Rohtak, near Delhi, where the controversial head of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect has been incarcerated after he was found guilty on Friday.
Judge Jagdeep Singh flew to Rohtak, 240 kilometer from Chandigarh, along with his judicial staff to announce the quantum of sentence after the Punjab and Haryana high court directed him to hold a special court in the jail to avoid a repeat of Friday’s violence by the followers of Ram Rahim following a guilty verdict against him.
50-year-old Gurmeet Ram Rahim faced a maximum sentence of 10 years for each of his crimes after being found guilty of raping two of his women followers and criminal intimidation. A team of half a dozen lawyers appeared before CBI judge Jagdeep Singh after the prosecutor sought the maximum sentence under the law for Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
The judge handed him a ten-year jail term for rape and three years for criminal intimidation of each victim. While the sentence of different charges will run concurrent, he will have to serve two prison terms of ten years each, Gurmeet Ram Rahim's lawyer confirmed.
"The judge ordered two consecutive jail terms of ten years each. He will first serve ten years in one rape case and then the second term of ten years for the second case... total twenty," said SK Garg Narwana.
Under the current Indian law, rape convicts can be imprisoned for their entire life. This law was enacted after the infamous Delhi gangrape and murder case of a medical student in 2012 in which five men raped the victim and badly mutilated her body. However, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh wasn't sentenced under the provision of the current law as the case against him predated the new law.
Tight security
The verdict was delivered amid tight security in Rohtak where security forces were given ‘shoot-at-sight’ orders, to deal with any miscreants after more than 30 lives were lost in violence in Panchkula on Friday after the CBI court held him guilty.
"Our top priority is to ensure tight vigil during sentencing... Security personnel have been given a free hand to react according to the need of the situation," a senior police officer told NDTV.
Nearly 150,000 followers of the controversial dera head had gathered in Panchkula on Friday ahead of the court verdict in the rape case. Many dera followers went on a rampage, clashing with the police, rioting and setting ablaze hundreds of vehicles after the verdict against Ram Rahim.
During the searches at the sect’s properties in Punjab and Haryana, police recovered sticks, rods and material to make petrol bombs. Inflammable materials and chemicals were also recovered from a fire truck that was part of Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s cavalcade on Friday.
Ahead of Monday’s hearing in Rohtak, all the districts of Punjab and Haryana were put on high alert, with thirteen districts in Punjab’s Malwa region under complete shut down as a precautionary measure. After Friday’s violence, the army was called out in ten districts of Punjab to maintain law and order. The dera has a sizeable following in Punjab’s Malwa region.
Political clout
Gurmeet Ram Rahim enjoyed a massive political clout with a following of over 20 million across north India. The sect has been throwing its weight behind different political parties, asking millions of followers to vote in favour of a particular party in the state and the general elections in India.
In 2014, the dera asked its followers to vote for the BJP, a favour acknowledged by the party when after the election, many of the ministers of the Haryana government paid Ram Rahim a visit to thank him at his Sirsa-based headquarters.
During the 2017 Punjab assembly election, the sect directed its followers to vote for the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP coalition. In the 2009 election in Haryana, the dera followers were directed to vote for the Congress party.
The sect threw its weight behind the Congress party in 2007 Punjab election. But the party couldn’t retain power despite the dera followers might behind it. In May that year, the sect was embroiled in violent confrontations with the followers of the Sikh faith after Ram Rahim allegedly imitated the tenth Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh- an act considered sacrilegious in Sikhism.
Analysts believe the sect sides with the party that’s in power in New Delhi, thereby controls the Central Bureau of Investigation, an agency prosecuting the sect head and other functionaries in various criminal cases, including rape and murder. In a case of rape, 50-year-old Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was found guilty by the CBI court of Panchkula on Friday.
The anonymous letter
The undoing of the self-proclaimed messenger of God began fifteen years ago with an anonymous letter by a woman inmate of the sect headquarter which is called Dera, who accused Gurmeet Ram Rahim of raping her and several other women inmates.
The complainant sent copies of the typed Hindi letter to the then prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana and the Punjab and Haryana high court.
She wrote that she was a graduate from Punjab and had been convinced by her parents to become a saadhvi at the Dera Sacha Sauda and become a disciple of Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
She said one day she was called to Ram Rahim's 'gufa'- residence of the Dera chief. Inside the gufa, the woman found Ram Rahim watching television with a pistol by his side.
This anonymous letter written in 2002 led to an investigation by India's Central Bureau of Investigation against Gurmeet Ram Rahim. Source: Supplied
Ram Rahim, the woman claimed, raped her and threatened with serious consequences if she spoke about it anywhere. The woman alleged that Ram Rahim raped her repeatedly during her stay at Dera.
The complainant claimed that there were many other girls who had met the same fate. Ram Rahim, she said in the letter, claimed that no authority could take action against him.
Court’s wrath
After Friday’s violence, the Punjab and Haryana high court came down hard on the Haryana government. It said the government let Panchkula burn for political gains. The court also ordered the administration to seize the properties of dera to recover the losses caused by the rampaging mob.
While many smaller ashrams owned by the Dera Sacha Sauda have been sealed by the administration and properties attached, the administration has so far not been able to take possession of the sect headquarters in Sirsa. According to media reports, thousands of followers of the sect are still squatting on the 700-acre premises of the ashram and the administration is negotiating with them to vacate it. Nearly 1000 dera followers have been arrested so far since Friday.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim is facing two more criminal cases- one, the murder of a journalist who published the anonymous letter in which the sect head was accused of rape, and the murder of the brother of the victim.
