Chandigarh, October 17: Self-styled godman Rampal, who along with 14 of his followers, sentenced to life in jail in a murder case, is set to challenge the conviction in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Fined Rs 1 lakh each, the accused were found guilty of illegal confinement, murder of four women and a child besides a criminal conspiracy, on October 11.
While pronouncing the punishment, the court said that Rampal would remain in prison until the end of his life.
The four women and the child died near Rampal’s Satlok Ashram in Haryana in 2014. The deaths took place during clashes between Rampal’s supporters and the police, which had come to arrest the godman in a separate murder case. Rampal had used his followers as a shield to avoid police action that had stormed his ashram following a court order.
Rampal has already been convicted in a murder case involving the death of a woman in 2006. The punishment in the 2006 murder case will be announced on October 17.
In both the murder cases — in 2014 and 2006 — Rampal was charged under Sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Rampal was convicted in both the cases last week on October 11. A makeshift court was set up within the Hisar Central Jail in Haryana where Rampal was held.
Born Rampal Singh Jatin in September 1951, Rampal once worked as an engineer in Haryana’s irrigation department. He renounced Hinduism and adopted Kabir Panth, a sect based on the teachings of medieval period poet-saint Kabir, after meeting Swami Ramdevanand.
Rampal later founded the Satlok Ashram in Haryana’s Rohtak and rose to become one of the most prominent leaders of Kabir Panth sect.
Rampal was arrested on November 19, 2014 after thousands of security personnel laid siege to the Satlok Ashram. Rampal’s followers had resisted the previous attempts by the police to arrest him.
