Over a month after the court sentenced Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in prison for rape, a plea has been filed in court seeking life imprisonment for Dera Sacha Sauda chief.
Over a month after the court sentenced Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in prison for rape, a plea has been filed in High Court seeking life imprisonment for Dera Sacha Sauda chief.
Ram Rahim was found guilty of rape in a case that stemmed from an anonymous written complaint in April 2002 that he had sexually exploited two female followers. The case was registered by the CBI in December 2002 on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been given two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two rapes.
"He committed a grave breach of trust, as he was addressed as Pitaji and he used his position as a religious leader to exploit followers who had blind faith in him and twice committed rape crime. He should have been sentenced for life," victim's Counsel said seeking revision of sentence of Dera Chief.
During the trial for the quantum of sentencing, a special court at Rohtak prison had compared Ram Rahim Singh as a wild beast.
The court has also fined him Rs 15 lakh in each of the two cases, of which Rs 14 lakh each would go to the two victims who were part of his sect and were coerced into having sex with him.
However, defending himself during a trial, Ram Rahim Singh claimed that he is 'impotent', therefore, there was no question of him raping the two Sadhvis in 1999. But the judge said Singh's claim is devoid of any merit in view of a statement made by one of his own witnesses, who said the Dera Sacha Sauda chief had two daughters.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Taneja (36), alias Honeypreet Insan, who calls herself the adopted daughter of Ram Rahim Singh, was arrested by the Haryana Police in connection with the deadly violence which followed the sect head's conviction on August 25.
The arrest came hours after Honeypreet appeared on two private news channels interacting with reporters at an undisclosed location.
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