The army has been put on standby and police say they have been given “shoot on sight” orders in case of trouble.
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A controversial Indian “god man” convicted of rape last Friday has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in India. In rare cases, like the December 2012 gang rape of a medical student that sparked outrage worldwide, death sentences are also handed out.
“He has been sentenced for 10 plus 10, which is a total of 20 years of imprisonment”.
Hundreds of followers went on the rampage when he was convicted on Friday, attacking train stations, buses and television vans. While some lawyers were of the view that the police should have been careful while firing at the mob or used pellet guns to minimise casualties, senior advocate Anupam Gupta, however, submitted that stern action was necessary.
The special CBI judge, on Monday, announced a 10-year-jail term for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
“Although the situation is under control, we have ensured that there is no security lapse and citizens are safe”.
There is now a curfew in both Haryana and the neighboring Punjab province. The sentence was passed in a special courtroom set up inside the Sunaria jail.
The judge didn’t show leniency neither in awarding jail term nor in using the words in his order.
“I think it is an eye-opener for all of us, who sometimes blindly follow religious leaders and spiritual gurus, under the guise of believing that they are here to serve humanity, when in this case, it has been proven otherwise”, she added.
He has also been accused of castrating more than 400 followers, killing DSS member Ranjit Singh and a Sirsa-based journalist named Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
Ram Rahim Singh’s followers turned violent and 38 people were killed after his conviction on Friday.
Nasib Kaur reportedly slammed 45 office bearers of the committee for not taking the rape trial against Ram Rahim seriously. He survived for a few days to name Ram Rahim in his statement to the police.
Authorities in Haryana’s Sirsa relaxed curfew in the town limits on Tuesday although the area around the Dera Sacha Sauda sect headquarters on the outskirts remained tense.
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Ram Rahim has consistently dismissed the charges against him as false and baseless. The conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim comes as a setback to BJP and its allies who have been the latest beneficiaries from the Dera not just in Punjab but Haryana as well.
