'Godman' Rampal remained calm, did not say a word during court proceeding

Chandigarh: After his arrest from Satlok Ashram in Hisar by Haryana police, controversial 'godman' Rampal on Thursday appeared calm and composed when he was produced in Punjab and Haryana High Court in a contempt case.

Wearing cream-colour full-sleeve sweater and keeping a woollen shawl on his shoulder, 63-year-old Rampal did not utter a single word during over an hour-long court proceeding.

Sant Rampal was produced before the Punjab and Haryana High Court today. PTI

After the division bench asked the Haryana police to produce Rampal at 2 pm following an application moved by Haryana Advocate General in the morning, saying godman has been arrested, police brought him in the court around 1:30 pm.

With the court room jam-packed with the presence of advocates and mediapersosn, police had to put in a lot of efforts to produce Rampal.

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UT Chandigarh Superintendent of Police Manish Chaudhary was seen requesting advocates and mediapersons to clear the way for producing Rampal in the court.

Some advocates could be seen taking pictures of Rampal using smart phones before the proceedings commenced, though clicking pictures is banned in a court room.

Despite remaining elusive from appearing in the court on health grounds, Rampal kept standing in the witness box for over an hour when the court proceedings started at 2 pm after lunch break.

The medical examination of Rampal, who was arrested from his Satlok Ashram in Hisar's Barwala town, was conducted at the Government General Hospital at Panchkula early today, with a doctor describing his overall condition as "stable".

Police had made elaborate security arrangements in and around Punjab and Haryana High Court in order to present the controversial 'godman' before the division bench court of justices M Jeyapaul and Darshan Singh.

Rampal claims to have diploma in engineering and had once worked as junior engineer in Haryana government's irrigation department. Rampal was born on 8 September, 1951 in village Dhanana, tehsil Gohana, Sonipat district of Haryana. After serving the government for 18 years, Rampal who was earlier Rampal Singh Jatin resigned on 21 May, 1995.

He has denied charges that he had asked thousands of his followers inside his Ashram to be kept as "hostages" for past several days.

Earlier, in the morning the High Court cancelled the bail of controversial 'Godman' Rampal in a 2006 murder case. He along with 37 other accused was charged with murder and other offences on July 12, 2006 and trial is going on in a session court at Rohtak.

PTI