IndiaToday.in | Edited by Dev Goswami
New Delhi, October 7, 2017 | UPDATED 17:33 IST
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has filed an appeal against the 20-year jail sentence he was handed for raping two female followers.The Dera chief has already moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against his actual conviction.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year jail sentence for two rapesJailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the 20-year jail sentence handed to him for his rape conviction.
The self-styled godman has prayed for a lesser sentence and the Punjab and Haryana High Court is likely to hear Ram Rahim's appeal next week.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was convicted and sentenced by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula, has already appealed the actual conviction. Today's appeal is against his punishment and not against his conviction.
On August 28, the Special CBI court in Panchkula sentenced the controversial Dera chief to 20 years in jail - 10 years each for two counts of rape. The sentencing was two days after the court held him guilty of raping two female Dera followers in a 15-year-old case.
Today's development comes days after the two women raped Ram Rahim approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, praying that the Dera chief's punishment be extended to a life term.
Following the August 25 conviction, Dera followers, who had gathered in Panchkula ahead of the verdict, ran riot. At least 30 people had died in the violence that followed Ram Ram Singh's conviction.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim's foster daughter and close aide Honeypreet Insan is among the prominent names accused of inciting the post-conviction violence. Hooneypreet was recently arrested by the Haryana Police following a 38-day manhunt.
MURDER
Troubles for the jailed Dera chief are far from over. Even as Ram Rahim Singh gets ready to argue his two appeals related to his rape conviction, he must also prepare for a verdict in a murder case he is accused in.
The murder case - relating to the alleged assassinations of two men - is closely linked to Ram Rahim Singh's rape conviction.
The two men Ram Rahim allegedly had killed were believed to have played a major role in making public an anonymous letter that revealed information about Ram Rahim's rapes.
One of the murdered men Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhattrapati, who published the letter in his newspaper, while the other was Ranjit Singh, a manager at the Dera headquarters, who is believed to have been responsible for leaking the letter in the first place.
The murder case, which is in its final stages, is being heard by same CBI court that convicted and sentenced Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for rape.
(With inputs from Manjeet Sehgal in Chandigarh)