Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been convicted of rape in a 2002 case and has been awarded 10 years imprisonment by a special CBI court on the instructions of the High Court. According to Indian Express, the judge was flown to Sonaria jail in a helicopter where a special court room was setup on the directions of High Court, proceedings began at 2.30 pm. The judge had allowed each side 10 minutes to present their case. The prosecution sought life term for Ram Rahim, while the defense asked for a lighter sentence because of his ‘social work’.
The man was convicted of rape on August 25th 2017, news of which lead to riots in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi leaving over 300 people injured and 38 dead.
As per live tweets by News 18, he has been crying outside the court room and not co-operating with the security forces.
Hilarious #RamRahimVerdict #RamRahimConvicted pic.twitter.com/w0jnCArsGL
— Omar Little (@omar1618) August 28, 2017
The CBI Court in its judgment has said that Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh will be treated as any other ‘ordinary’ convict and will not be provided special amenities or an attendant.