Gurmeet Ram Rahim sentenced to life imprisonment for murder

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court at Panchkula on Monday sentenced former head of Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to life imprisonment for the murder of one Ranjeet Singh (CBI vs. Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim)..Four other convicts, Avtar Singh, Jasbir Singh, Sabdil Singh and Krishan Lal were also sentenced to life imprisonment along with Singh, IANS reported. .Special Judge Sushil Kumar Garg pronounced the sentence. The accused had earlier been pronounced guilty for offences under Sections 302 (Murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code..The trial came to an end today after a long, litigious journey.Before the CBI Court was set to deliver the verdict in the murder trial, Jagseer Singh, the son of the victim, had moved the Punjab & Haryana High Court seeking a transfer of the trial to any other CBI court in Haryana, Punjab or Chandigarh.Singh had claimed that the special judge holding the trial was unduly influenced by the public prosecutor of the CBI.During the pendency of the transfer petition, the pronouncement of verdict by the CBI Court was stayed.However, the High Court did not find merit in the plea, stating that the allegations of proximity between the public prosecutor and judge were based on hearsay and dismissed the plea.Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is already convicted and sentenced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for the rape of two women followers and was also convicted for life for the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chatterpati who published an article regarding sexual exploitation of Sadhvis in the Dera.