Sant Rampal
A local court in Hisar district of Haryana on Tuesday acquitted godman Sant Rampal (66) in two cases, which related to obstructing government servants from performing their duty and wrongful confinement of people in his Satlok Ashram in Hisar district in 2014. The verdict came a day after a CBI court awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in two rape cases.
In 2014, police were ordered to arrest Rampal after he failed to appear in the Punjab and Haryana High Court many times. When police reached his Satlok Ashram in Hisar, Rampal’s followers barricaded themselves inside the 12-acre premises near Barwala town. Power and water supply to the ashram were cut off after authorities realised he would not surrender peacefully. After a two-week stand-off with police, he was finally arrested on November 19, 2014. Nearly 20,000 of his followers were evacuated from the Ashram.
After the clashes during the stand-off that left five women and a child dead and 200 injured, Rampal was slapped with cases of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, waging war against the state government, rioting, illegal detention and others.
On Tuesday, Rampal was acquitted by the trial court of judicial magistrate Mukesh Kumar in two cases registered against him during this conflict. Keeping in view the violence during the appearance of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Rahim Singh in Panchkula, a special court was held in Hisar’s Central Jail where Rampal is currently lodged.
In one case, according to public prosecutor Ajay Choudhary, both eyewitnesses and the complainant turned hostile while in another case, the court gave him benefit of the doubt. Speaking to The Indian Express, Choudhary said the state government would appeal against the verdict.
Although Rampal has been cleared of charges of obstructing government servants from performing their duty and wrongful confinement of people, he will continue to remain in jail as he faces charges in at least half-a-dozen other cases, one of which dates back to 2005 where a villager was shot dead in Rohtak district. Satlok Ashram media in-charge Chand Rathee termed the latest court verdict as a “victory of truth’. “Rest of the cases pending against their Guru are also baseless,” he claimed.
Founder of Satlok Ashram, touted as a socio-cultural movement in Haryana, Rampal is the head of religious sect called Kabir Panth. Born Rampal Singh Jatin in Dhanana village in Sonepat district in 1951, he obtained his diploma from Nilokheri’s Industrial Training Institute, after which he worked as a junior engineer in the Haryana Government’s irrigation department. He quit his job in 1995 after 18 years of service.
In 1999-2000, Rampal-led Bandi Chhor Mukti Trust built an ashram in Karontha village in Rohtak district, which was opposed by Arya Samajis under the banner of Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, which said in its petition before the Supreme Court in 2009, “The people of the nearby villages are strongly against the opening up of the ashram because the ashram was a place of illegal activities like immoral trafficking of women, weapons and exploitation.” In 2006, a bloody battle took place between his followers and Arya Aamajis in which one person was killed while 59 others were seriously injured near his ashram at Karontha.
Rampal lived in Karontha ashram till 2006 when the district administration attached its properties. In 2013, the administration handed over the ashram to Rampal’s followers in view of a SC order but was forced to close it after violence between both groups in which three persons were killed. Rampal, however, continued his activities from his aashram at Barwala (Hisar) where a confrontation took place between his supporters and the police.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Haryana Police, which had conducted the search operation at Satlok Ashram in Barwala after his arrest, had recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition. Besides, petrol bombs, acid syringes, a chilli grenade and a pregnancy test strip were also recovered from his ashram. Back in the day, the state police had reached a conclusion that they possibly fought a well-armed force of about 250 “Black Commandos” trained by retired Army and police personnel.
