The Sant Rampal Case

In a land where gods and goddesses are rumoured to have walked among the mortals, and god-men are mortals themselves; a new name will find a place beside all those existing ones: Sant Rampal.

Born to a farmer family in Sonepat, Sant has a diploma in Engineering and claims to have been appointed as a J.E. in the Irrigation Department of the Haryana Government. But he was removed on charges of  "carelessness" during duty in 2000. In 1999, he set up the Satlok Ashram in Rohtak's Karontha village and had already declared himself as an incarnation of Kabir, after becoming a disciple of Swami Ramadevanand Ji Maharaj.

After 2000, he had to go through a lot of legal wrangling for having made derogatory remarks against Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Arya Samaj. Report says that on July 12, 2006, this god-man's followers and Arya Samajis engaged in a clash, where a young man got killed. Rampal and some of his followers were jailed. Currently on bail, this man faces charges of conspiracy in connection with the 2006 incident.

On November 10th, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a fresh non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him and cancelled his bail. Rampal failed to turn up on the given dates, and on Monday the HC issued a fresh NBW against him for 21st November for failing to turn up in an earlier contempt case.

In a race against the deadline, police and CRPF jawans tried to storm into the Ashram in Hissar and were met with stiff resistance from the devotees, with mostly children and women forming a human barricade. More than 200 people have been injured and 4 bodies have been recovered.

Much has been done by the police and the devotees, with questions remaining as to whether the man himself is still confined in his Ashram or has safely escaped amidst the confusion. "God" knows, perhaps.

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