Journalism of Courage
A day after a Hisar court awarded life imprisonment to self-styled godman Rampal in a murder case, the same court Wednesday awarded life sentence to him on charges of murder.
Rampal’s advocate A P Singh told The Indian Express that both sentences would run concurrently. In Wednesday’s case, 14 accused, including Rampal, have been awarded a life term along with a penalty of Rs 2.05 lakh each. In Tuesday’s verdict, life term was awarded to 15 accused in a separate murder case pertaining to the 2014 violence at the Satlok Ashram near Barwala, Hisar. There are six accused, including Rampal, who have been sentenced to life in both cases. Their sentences will run concurrently.
The court had made it clear again that all convicts are sentenced to imprisonment for life till their natural death.
Additional District and Sessions Judge D R Chalia in his order said: “Followers of these self-styled godmen put them on the pedestal of ‘God’. But these godmen breach the faith of such gullible and blind followers. Such criminal acts of a godman, who is stated to be running a religious cult known as ‘Satlok Ashram’, have shattered the image of pious and spiritual, social, cultural and religious institutions existing in this country since times immemorial.”
Rampal’s lawyer A P Singh said that they would challenge the verdict before Punjab and Haryana High Court. “The accused are in the jail for the past four years. Their families are on the verge of starvation. In each case, they have been penalised with a fine. Each of the six accused who were convicted in both cases will have to pay Rs 4.10 lakh as fine. How they would pay such huge amount?” said AP Singh, adding “We wonder how Rampal was convicted under murder charges while he was ill at time of occurrence and there was no recovery of such weapon which was used in the offence.”
The two murder cases pertain to death of five women and one child who died because of suffocation and illness during two-week long standoff and clashes between Rampal supporters and police in November 2014. Rampal and his supporters were blamed for their death as the prosecution pleaded that food and medicines could not be provided to them on time which led to their death.
“From the overall analysis of the deposition of witnesses of the occurrence as well as from the analysis of various sections of Indian Panel Code … the followers who were inside the ashram at the time of occurrence were used as shield by accused (Baba Rampal) and when they tried to leave from ashram, they were wrongly confined in the ashram and due to this reason,… (victims) expired,” the court ruled.
