Dera chief sentencing at 2.30 pm; minimum punishment for rape is 7 yrs

Rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh will be sentenced on Monday at 2.30 p.m. at a special court near Rohtak town in Haryana.

The quantum of sentence will be done in a court being specially set up inside the District Jail premises in Sunaria near Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi, where Ram Rahim was brought and lodged after his conviction.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court judge Jagdeep Singh, who had on Friday held the Dera chief guilty of rape and criminal intimidation of the two female disciples in 2002, will be flown to Rohtak on Monday for announcing the sentence.

The sect chief has been convicted on two counts for rape (Section 376 IPC), criminal intimidation (Section 506 IPC) and Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

The minimum punishment for rape is seven years which may extend till life (term). The other sections have imprisonment for two and one years respectively.

The district jail premises, about 10 km from Rohtak town, has been completely cordoned off by security forces, including para-military forces and Haryana Police. The Army has been kept on stand-by.

No movement of people, other than those authorized, will be allowed within a distance of 10 km from the prison premises.

"We are fully prepared for any situation. The Army has been kept on stand-by," Haryana Director General of police (DGP) B.S. Sandhu said.

Rohtak range Inspector General (IG) Navdeep Singh Virk said that 28 companies of para-military forces, along with Haryana Police, have been deployed in Rohtak.

Security forces were on high alert again on Monday in Haryana and Punjab as both states braced for the announcement of quantum of punishment to the disgraced sect chief.

Curfew was reimposed in Haryana's Sirsa town, where the sect's headquarters are located, on Sunday. The curfew will continue on Monday.

The sect has lakhs of followers mainly in Punjab and Haryana.