Rampal booked in 35 new cases including murder and rioting

New Delhi: Self-styled “godman” Rampal, who was arrested on Thursday, has been booked in 35 new cases, which include murder, rioting and illegal confinement, according to reports.

He has been shifted to a jail in Hisar in Haryana, where he will be interrogated by a special police team.

Read: Punjab and Haryana High Court sends Rampal to Panchkula jail

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday remanded self-styled “godman” Rampal in judicial custody till November 28. Rampal was arrested from his Satlok ashram in Barwala, in Haryana’s Hisar district, on Wednesday night after a long police operation. The police also slapped charges of murder and violence over the deaths of six people (four women in his ashram and one woman and an infant who died in hospital) during the stand-off that ended Wednesday night.

Read: Haryana police arrest ‘Godman’ Rampal, six persons die in face-off in Haryana

A two-judge high court division bench comprising Justices M. Jeyapaul and Darshan asked the Haryana government to file a report in connection with the police operation at Rampal’s ashram. When the bench asked Rampal why he didn’t surrender to the police, the sect leader replied he had been held captive in his ashram. Earlier on Thursday, the court cancelled the bail granted to Rampal in April 2008 in a 2006 murder case.

Read: Eccentric? Self-styled ‘Godman’ Rampal’s devotees bathed him in milk, made kheer with it

“So far 469 people have been arrested while more people are being questioned. Out of the total arrests made, 118 belong to Rajasthan, 116 from Haryana, 72 from Madhya Pradesh, 10 from Bihar, 83 from UP and three from Nepal (sic),” DGP S.N. Vashisht said. “We have also arrested Rampal’s key aide Baljeet. Baljeet’s daughter Babita too has been arrested and from her one laptop, six mobile phones, 10 hard disks, 17 CDs, three telephone diaries and five files have been recovered. He said that another key aide, Ram Kunwar Dhaka, too has been arrested while Rampal’s brother and key functionary Purshottam Dass and others were caught earlier.

Read: 'Godman' Rampal's faces sedition

“One special team, which will include cyber experts, will scan all seized equipment and whatever information we get during the course of the investigation will be shared with you (made public),” the DGP said.