‘All journalists, be like Ramchandra Chhatrapati’: social media reacts to Dera chief’s sentencing

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was on Monday sentenced to 20 years in jail in two different rape and sexual exploitation cases. A three-tier security cordon had been thrown around the Rohtak district jail, where the CBI special court judge was flown to pronounce the quantum of sentence against the convicted Dera chief.

While a teary-eyed “Messenger of God” pleaded for leniency inside the court, social media users broke out in celebrations on internet. They showered praises on CBI judge Jagdeep Singh—who read out the sentence to convicted Dera chief—saying that it was a warning to other conmen masquerading as spiritual leaders.

The 20-year rigorous imprisonment to Sirsa Dera chief is being viewed as a victory of the rule of law over the rule of the mob. The politicians who patronised and felicitated the convicted Dera chief in the past were also at the receiving end on Monday.

But there are many who don’t seem satisfied with the quantum of punishment pronounced by the court. In their angry reactions on twitter and other social networking platforms, they have demand enhanced punishment for the Dera chief.

Nevertheless, this is not for the first time that a spiritual leader has landed in jail for criminal acts. On charges of rape and criminal intimidation, Asaram is in jail since 2013. His son Narayan Sai, who was a senior functionary in his spiritual empire, is also in prison on rape charges.

A Mumbai court in April 2016 convicted the 43-year-old self-styled godman, Mehndi Kasim, for raping seven girls and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

A Kerala court in May 2009 found Madhavan guilty of raping three minor girls. He was sentenced to 16 years of rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 2,10,000 in 2009.

Premananda left war-ravaged Sri Lanka and moved to India in 1984 to set up an ashram in Tiruchirappalli. In August 1997, Premananda and six of his accomplices were convicted of raping 13 minor girls.

Gnyanachaitanya spent 14 years in jail for three murders. After his release, he met a British family and convinced them that their daughter was his ‘wife’ in a previous birth. He then sexually abused and tortured the woman years. After she escaped and complained to her parents and the police, Gnyanachaitanya was arrested again.

Several netizens—who never miss an opportunity to extract satire and humour from anything and everything in the cyber space, dug out screen gems and songs of Ram Rahim, always known for his flashy lifestyle, to poke fun at him.