Satlok Ashram head Rampal, others acquitted in two cases

Hisar, Aug 29: Satlok Ashram Head Rampal and others were today acquitted by a local court in two criminal cases. However, the self-styled godman will remain in jail as there are more cases pending against him. The court of Judicial Magistrate (first class) Mukesh Kumar was temporarily shifted to the Central Jail number-1 to pronounce the verdict in the case in view of security arrangements. The court had completed the process of evidence in the FIR numbers 426 and 427 registered in Barwala Police Station on November 17 and November 18 in 2015, respectively. In November 2014, Rampal holed up inside his ashram in Barwala and thousands of his followers resisted the police and paramilitary personnel from arresting the self-styled godman. Five people were killed and several others injured in the violence. After a week-long stand-off, police nabbed the Satlok Ashram chief on an arrest warrant issued for repeatedly ignoring court summons. The police registered new cases against Rampal, including for murder, attempted murder, sedition, rioting and illegal detention. The court had deferred the date of hearing to August 29 in view of the Dera Sacha Sauda case during previous hearing on August 24. A special CBI court had sentenced Sirsa Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in jail yesterday. UNI