National Post (National Edition)
28 killed in riots over ‘rockstar’ guru verdict
DELHI • Violent protests over a court convicting a selfstyled “God man” of raping two women left 28 dead and 250 injured Friday in India's northern Haryana state.
Rioting erupted in Panchkula, 240 kilometres north of Delhi, minutes after Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, 50, was declared guilty of raping two devotees in his ashram in 2002.
Mobs set fire to government buildings and attacked police and journalists, smashing the windshields of news vans and breaking broadcast equipment. Police used tear gas and water cannon and then fired bullets in the air in an attempt to control the surging crowd as they vandalized bus stations and government vehicles.
The violence then spread to neighbouring Punjab and Himachal provinces and the federal capital Delhi, where Singh's supporters, believing him to be innocent, stormed police barricades and attacked the media.
They also burnt vehicles, including a bus and a fire engine and two empty train carriages, resulting in a curfew being imposed on several areas.
More than 1,000 of the guru's supporters were detained in Panchkula on charges of arson and destruction of public property, police said.
“I have taken refuge in a house. They are attacking everyone,” said an NDTV reporter in Panchkula. The police were simply outnumbered, he added. The army was deployed to restore order after thousands of local police and paramilitaries failed to control the crowd of Singh's followers, numbering 200,000.
“I don't understand what the government and the police are doing. We have been feeling unsafe since yesterday and all our fears came true today,” Sandeep Singh, a local, said. “Why did the police not act swiftly and forcefully against these followers?”
The judge from the Special Central Bureau of Investigation said Singh, who heads the Dera Sacha Suada or Place of Truth ashram in Sirsa, would be sentenced on Monday. He could face a seven-year jail sentence.
Charges against Singh were filed in 2007 following an anonymous letter to a former Indian prime minister detailing the rapes.
Late Friday Singh was flown by helicopter to a nearby town, where he will be housed in a luxurious suite located in a police training academy, before being brought back for sentencing.
Known as “rockstar baba” and “guru of bling” because of his love of shiny, colourful clothes, Singh has cultivated a rock star image.
He claims a following of over 60 million devotees worldwide, and has also been accused by former ashram inmates of surrounding himself with 400 castrated bodyguards. Singh reportedly claims the castrations bring his followers “closer to God”.
Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, said that he strongly condemned the “instances of violence” and urged peace.