Self-styled godman Rampal gets another life term for murder, 13 followers also sentenced

A court pronounced the verdict in the 2014 case after four women and one child were found dead on his Satlok Asharam premises when the police barged into the ashram on the orders of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

A court in Hisar on Wednesday sentenced self-styled godman Rampal and his 13 followers to life imprisonment in a murder case.

Self-styled godman Rampal being brought to court in Chandigarh in 2014. Rampal was arrested that year 2014 following a days-long standoff between the police and his supporters in which six people died and hundreds were injured. (AP)

This comes a day after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in another murder case.

The self-styled godman and his followers were convicted of two murders on October 16.

The court of additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) Desraj Chalia also slapped a fine on each of the convict in both cases.

The cases date back to 2014 when four women and one child were found dead on the Satlok Asharam premises when the police barged into the ashram on the orders of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The first case involves the death of four women and a child at the ashram in Barwala town of Hisar on November 18, 2014. In the second case, Rampal and his 13 followers were booked on charges of murder and wrongful confinement after a woman was found dead at the ashram on November 19, 2014. Rampal was arrested the same day on charges of murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy, possessing illegal weapons, abetting suicide and waging war against the government of India. Thousands of his followers clashed with police when they came to arrest him following directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a contempt-of-court case.

On Tuesday, the judge in his detailed judgment copy invoked the lines of Martin Luther King Jr, “Law may not be able to make a man love him, but it can keep the man from lynching him”. The court observed that the case fell in the category of rarest of rare case. “However, as it has been proved on record that the convict Rampal with the help and conspiracy hatched with other convicts did not even spare his own pious disciples and had acted in illegal manner and therefore, they do not deserve any much mercy. In other words, a man who has no concern for humanity nor has any mercy in his nature, do not deserve any mercy from the court,” the court observed.

He judge also underlined the controversies involving the self-proclaimed godmen. “They initially claim to be spiritual gurus and later proclaim themselves to be ‘God’ and in the process, end up amassing wealth and abusing innocent and vulnerable children and women. In recent times, self-stlyed godmen are in the news for all the wrong reasons.”

The district administration had made elaborate security arrangements in the area and did not allow Rampal’s followers to reach in the city.