Rampal, 13 aides awarded life term in another murder case

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, October 17

Additional District and Sessions (ADJ) Judge DR Chalia on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment till death to Satlok Ashram head Rampal and 13 of his supporters, including a woman, for the murder of a disciple in November 2014.

Besides Rampal, the convicts are Raj Kapoor, Rajender, Balwan, Pawan, Rajiv Sharma, Rajesh alias Ramesh, Natwar Lal, Rajesh, Ramchander, Joginder, Virender, Babita and Krishan.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.05 lakh on each of the 14 convicts. They were awarded rigorous imprisonment till death without remission in the murder and criminal conspiracy charges. A jail term of two years was also awareded on charges of wrongful confinement.

The police had booked them under Sections 302, 343 and 120-B of the IPC on November 14, 2014, in connection with the murder of a disciple, Rajni, in Satlok Ashram.

The police had to storm the ashram to arrest Rampal to implement the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to produce him before the court in a contempt of court case.

On Tuesday, the court sentenced Rampal and 14 of his aides to life imprisonment till death for the murder of five women and a child in Satlok Ashram, Barwala.

The ADJ observed that “godmen” were in the news for all the wrong reasons. “From financial fraud to rape and even outright murder, their self-appointed leaders seem to be grabbing national attention on a fairly regular basis. The script is predictable. The guru may go to prison, but his followers refuse to stop believing in him,” the judge said, adding “those of us who don’t subscribe to this kind of blind, raging faith, find the phenomenon baffling”.

“We wonder who are these people and why do so many people believe in these dubious men and women to the extent that they are even willing to die for them,” the ADJ said in the order.