The outlandish, popular Indian guru Ram Rahim has been convicted of sexually exploiting woman in his dera. The army has taken him into protective custody and he will be transferred to a military base.
The situation is tense in the state as police has had to use tear gas and shelling in sector 3 of Panchkula. Army conducts flag march in Panchkula trying to take control of the area. Ram Rahim’s bakthas who are thronging by the thousands are in a state of crisis as their god man is proclaimed guilty by the courts. Clashes have broken out near the Holiday INN in Panchkula, media vans are being trashed, media persons attacked, the crown even tried to burn down a railway station and a petrol pump. The army is trying to control the toughening crowd despite the various security measures belted out by the government.
Born in August 1967, Ram Rahim comes from a Jat Sikh family of Gurusar Modiya village in Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan. He was initiated into the sect at a tender age of seven by his predecessor Shah Satnam Singh Maharaj.
He was anointed the sect head when he was barely 23. Having married early, the dera head is said to have sacrificed his personal life for public service, and thus not much is known about it. The story regarding his initiation and gradual ascendancy from a follower to the master has been chronicled by the Dera.
It is told that the sect’s first mater Shah Mastana, in his last spiritual discourse in 1960, had indicated that seven years later he would reincarnate as the third master of the sect.
Initially the followers could not grasp his remarks. However, a parallel was drawn after the sangat (followers) found that Ram Rahim was born in 1967. The dera account describes Ram Rahim as a ‘child prodigy’. It says he excelled in everything and even learnt driving when he was eight. Devout followers swear that though Ram Rahim studied up to high school, his spiritual powers ensured that he excelled in multiple tasks.
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