A day after being awarded life imprisonment in a murder case, the self-styled Godman Rampal was on Wednesday again sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hisar Court in a second murder case.
The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge in Hisar sentenced Rampal, 67, and 13 others in the case registered at Barwala police station in the district on November 19, 2014. They had been charged with murder, wrongful confinement of people and criminal conspiracy.
The Court also slapped a fine of Rs 2.05 lakh on each of the convicts on Wednesday.
A woman was found dead at Rampal's Satlok Ashram in Hisar district on November 19, 2014, the day he was arrested by Haryana Police.
On Tuesday, the same court had awarded life sentence to the controversial Godman along with 14 others for the murder of four women and one child.
Rampal and some of his followers had been convicted on October 11 in two separate cases of murder and other offences, including wrongful confinement of his victims at his Ashram in Hisar.
The Court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs one lakh each under Section 302 IPC, two years imprisonment under Section 343 IPC and fine of Rs 5,000 each, and life imprisonment under Section 120 B and fine of Rs one lakh each. All sentences will run concurrently.
AP Singh, advocate who represented Rampal and others, said they will challenge the sessions court decision before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The verdict was pronounced, after nearly a four-year trial, in a makeshift court inside the central jail in Hisar, where Rampal and his followers have been lodged since their arrest in November 2014.
The cases date back to November 2014, when the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the police to arrest Rampal after he failed to appear before the court. Thousands of his followers had clashed with police when they had come to arrest him at his Satlok Ashram in Hisar.
Rampa was arrested on November 19 after a two-week long stand-off between his followers and police which had left six dead and several others injured. Six persons — five women and an infant — were killed in the violence.
Ahead of the pronouncement of the sentence, the Hisar District Administration had made elaborate security arrangements.
Section 144 of the CrPC, prohibiting gathering of more than four persons, has been imposed by the district magistrate, effective till October 17.
Before becoming a self-styled godman, Rampal had worked as an engineer in Haryana’s Irrigation Department for 15 years before quitting in1996.
He later founded the Satlok Ashram in Haryana’s Rohtak in 1999 and gradually gained popularity as a spiritual leader.