Punjab and Haryana high court dismisses self-styled godman’s bail plea

This is the second case in which his bail plea has been dismissed

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of Rampal, a self-styled godman from Haryana, who had sought the same to attend the wedding ceremony of his granddaughter on July 22.

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This is the second case in which his bail plea has been dismissed. Earlier, one bail plea in another FIR was dismissed on Friday.

The Satlok Ashram head has been awarded life imprisonment without ‘remission’ by a Hisar trial court in murder cases registered against him in Hisar in 2014.

The FIRs were registered after large-scale violence was witnessed at his Hisar ashram during the November 2014 operation launched by multiple agencies to nab him as he refused to appear before the high court.

In the entire operation, six lives were lost and 110 police personnel and 70 civilians had sustained injuries. He was convicted in October 2018 in two cases. There are four more FIRs registered against him in which trial is underway.

The fresh order was passed by a bench presided over by Justice Rajiv Sharma after state government told the court that in view of nature of his conviction in heinous crimes and large following the godman has in the state, it would be very difficult for the state agencies to make arrangements for his security amid pandemic.

The plea which was dismissed on Monday was taken up by the bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Avneesh Jhingan on Friday, which had sought state’s response whether security arrangements could be made, if granted bail.