Ram Rahim rape verdict: 4 standoffs between ‘godmen’ and cops that turned violent
We take a look at violent standoffs between the police and followers of godmen and cult leaders ahead of the verdict a rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
A CBI special trial court in Panchkula will decide on Friday the fate of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, accused of raping his female followers.
Since Wednesday, parts of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh have been under a security lockdown as 200,000 supporters of Ram Rahim massed in Panchkula ahead of the verdict.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has authorised security forces to use force, if needed.
We take a look at cases in which followers of self-styled godmen or cult leaders were involved in a stand-off with the police:
When police stormed Rampal’s ashram
In November 2014, five bodies were discovered by the police after they stormed the ashram of a self-styled godman, Rampal, in Haryana’s Hisar. Another of the man’s followers died in hospital. The police were seeking Rampal’s arrest after he refused court orders to appear to answer charges including conspiracy to murder, inciting mobs and contempt of court.
Rampal considers himself an incarnation of the 15th-century poet Kabir.
The ashram was guarded by hundreds of followers for several days. Police fired water canon and lathi-charged the supporters who were armed with stones, petrol bombs among other weapons.
Some followers later came out of the ashram, saying they had been held at the ashram against their will.
Bloody clashes between police, Mathura cult leader’s followers
In April 2014, Ram Vriksha Yadav, a small, greying man in dhoti-and-kurta, took over a park in Mathura with around 500 armed followers for a two-day protest.
But members of the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah – and its armed wing Subhash Sena – never left, occupying the public space to turn it into what appeared to be the headquarters of a self-styled revolutionary group. The local people called them ‘Naxalites’.
Little was known about the group until the point the police clashed with thousands of its followers, trying to clear out some 3,000 squatters on court orders. The violence left 24 people dead, including the Mathura superintendent of police.
With ‘Jai Hind, Jai Subhash’ as the motto, Yadav appears to have forged a militant outfit that sought to indoctrinate and give arms training to local teenagers, seeking to replace the present-day political system with their own vision of a Bose-inspired world.
Drama before Asaram’s arrest
There was drama when police arrived at self-styled godman Asaram Bapu’s ashram in 2013 to arrest him. Hundreds of his supporters crowded around the building and reportedly attacked television camera crews.
A team of Jodhpur police arrested Asaram and took him away in a jeep around midnight, after waiting for nearly eight hours at the ashram.
Violent past of Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s followers
In May 2007, violence erupted after Gurmeet Ram Rahim allegedly mimicked the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
After the case of alleged blasphemy — the court case has been closed after the complaint was withdrawn — Punjab and Haryana had witnessed bloody clashes between the Sikhs who took offence and the dera’s followers. Three people were killed in Punjab and hundreds were injured during the clashes. More than 50 policemen were injured during the clashes with dera followers in Bathinda.
Some dera followers burnt buses in Bathinda and Mansa and even a broadcast van of a news channel. Residents said an undeclared curfew prevailed in the district for nearly 10 days.
With inputs from agencies
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