Rampal gets second life term in two days
VERDICT Quantum of punishment pronounced after a fouryear trial ADVOCATE, WHO REPRESENTED RAMPAL AND OTHERS, SAID THEY WILL CHALLENGE THE DECISION BEFORE THE PUNJAB & HARYANA HC
HISAR: A local court Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to self-styled godman Rampal and his 13 followers in another murder case. The court of additional district and session judge (ADSJ) Desraj Chalia also slapped a fine of ~2.5 lakh on each of the convict.
The case relates to the death of a woman whose body was found at Rampal’s Satlok ashram located on the outskirts of Barwala town of district Hisar on November 19, 2014.
Rampal was arrested the same day for murder and other charges were slapped on him.
On Tuesday, the court sentenced the engineer-turned selfstyled godman and 14 of his followers to life imprisonment in connection with another case of murder. On October 11, Rampal and some of his followers had been convicted in two separate cases of murder and other offences, including wrongful confinement of his victims at his Ashram in Hisar.
The court awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs one lakh each under Section 302 IPC, two years imprisonment under Sec- tion 343 IPC and fine of Rs 5,000 each, and life imprisonment under Section 120 B and fine of Rs one lakh each. All sentences will run concurrently.
AP Singh, counsel of Rampal and others, said they will challenge the sessions court decision before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The verdict was pronounced, after nearly a four-year trial, in a makeshift court inside the central jail in Hisar, where Rampal and his followers have been lodged since their arrest in November 2014.
The two cases against Rampal and his followers were filed at Barwala police station on November 19, 2014. Besides the murder charges, the Barwala police had also invoked the offence of wrongful confinement, among others, in the two FIRS.
In November 2014, as the police proceeded to arrest Rampal holed up inside his ashram, his followers and devotees, numbering more than 15,000, surrounded the sprawling 12-acre hermitage to prevent the godman’s arrest.
Six persons — five women and an infant — were killed in the ensuing violence.
Ahead of the pronouncement of the sentence, the Hisar district administration had made elaborate security arrangements. Section 144 of the CRPC, prohibiting gathering of more than four persons, has been imposed by the district magistrate, effective till October 17. Before becoming a “godman”, Rampal worked as a junior engineer in a Haryana government department for 15 years before quitting in May 1995.