After over 200 hearings, a special CBI court in Panchkula held Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty in rape cases dating back to 2002.
Army had to conduct a flag march in Panchkula and adjoining areas in view of possible violent protests by the controversial godman's supporters.
The godman could be facing 7 years in jail. According to reports, the quantum of sentence could come out by August 28. Ram Rahim has been taken into judicial custody.
Many parts of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh have been put on a security lockdown since Wednesday after over 200,000 supporters of the guru massed in Panchkula ahead of the verdict. Mobile internet, data and power services have also been temporarily suspended in Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh to prevent any untoward incident.
CASE HISTORY
1) The rape allegations against Gurmeet Ram Rahim date back to 2002, when a Dera sadhvi wrote an anonymous letter to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying she was raped by the Dera chief.
2) In the letter, the sadhvi also accused Gurmeet Ram Rahim of raping several other female followers inside the sprawling Dera campus on the outskirts of Sirsa in the state of Haryana.
3) The Punjab and Haryana high court took suo motu - of its own accord - cognizance of the sadhvi's letter and directed the CBI to register a sexual exploitation case against the Dera chief in 2002. The CBI then registered a case against Gurmeet Ram Rahim, based on the sadhvi's letter.
4) The investigating agency questioned 18 sadhvis and two of them levelled allegations of rape against the spiritual leader. One sadhvi said that her rape was "justified" on the grounds that it would "purify" her.
5) Both sadhvis who said they were raped recorded their statements before the court and reiterated that they were raped. Their statements are part of the CBI chargesheet which was filed on July 30, 2007 in the special CBI court.
6) One of the sadhvis said in her statement that when she entered the Dera chief's sprawling chamber, the doors automatically closed and she found him watching a pornographic movie on a big screen. The CBI is said to be banking heavily on this statement as only a select few have access to that chamber.
7) The trial against Gurmeet Ram Rahim commenced in 2008 and on September 6, 2008, he was charged under Section 376 (rape) and Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
8) The Dera chief has consistently called the charges false and baseless and has told the court that he is "not capable of" engaging in physical relations.
THE CLOUT
1) Despite charges of murder, conspiracy, and rape against him, the Dera chief enjoys Z-category security provided by Haryana Police and moves around in a fleet of bulletproof luxury sport utility vehicles.
2) He is the head of the India-based socio-spiritual organisation Dera Sacha Sauda since September 23, 1990. Apart from being a spiritual guru with millions of followers, he is also a singer, actor and entrepreneur.
3) He is among the 36 Indians to have a VVIP status and hence merits Z-level security, in addition to his own private guards.
4) He is married to Harjeet Kaur and has two daughters - Charanpreet Kaur and Amarpreet Kaur, and a son named Jasmeet Singh.
5) According to his website, he is said to play a wide range of sports that include volleyball, kabaddi, lawn tennis, cricket, football, billiards, table tennis, snooker, basketball, water polo and others.
6) He has received an honorary doctorate degree from the UK-based World Records University. "Ram Rahim has 53 world records in various categories, out of which 17 are Guinness records, 27 are Asia Book records, 7 India Book records and 2 are Limca records. Basically, Babaji's personality is an all-round one, which we considered. In the five years of India operations, the university has awarded around 100 Indians so far," the university had said in a statement.
7) He has written, produced, directed and acted in three movies. And in all of them, he can be seen wearing fancy colourful clothes, riding a motorcycle, performing heroic feats and thrashing bad folks.
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