India prepares for violence as cult ‘godman’ sentenced

INDIA has deployed thousands of riot police and shut down internet services in two northern states, as it prepares for the sentencing today of a self-styled “godman” whose followers went on the rampage after he was convicted of rape on Friday.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s cult Dera Sacha Sauda has a vast rural following in the Punjab and Haryana states where frenzied mobs burned down gas and train stations and torched vehicles after a court found him guilty of raping two women in a 2002 case.

Security forces have cordoned off a jail in Rohtak city, 70km from New Delhi, where Singh – also known as the “guru of bling” – is being held, and where the judge who convicted Singh will hold a special hearing today to decide the punishment.

Singh faces a minimum years in prison. of seven