A hushed silence descended on Panchkula as thousands of followers of Dera Sacha Sauda sat quietly in the open as it rained at Hafed Chowk adjoining Sector 4, awaiting the verdict in the rape trial against their religious leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Friday afternoon.
The area was heavily barricaded by Haryana Police and paramilitary personnel. Men and women, many of them young, weathered the downpour and sat in silence on the road leading to the Bella Vista hotel, 2 km from the court complex in Sector 1.
Anxiety was writ large on their faces.
This was one of the routes earmarked for the dera chief to take to the court but he was taken there by another road.
Earlier, children from houses in the vicinity were seen offering water to security personnel at the martyr Sandeep Shankla roundabout in Sector 2. The road to the Secretariat beyond the roundabout is cordoned off for the past three days.