More than 31 people were killed and over 250 injured on Friday in violence by supporters of self-appointed “godman” Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Haryana and neighbouring Punjab after a court convicted him of raping two of his followers.
Ram Rahim, the chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda, will be sentenced on Monday and was flown out of Panchkula in a government helicopter to Rohtak where he is in a special prison cell. Officials say the situation in riot-hit towns is grim but under control.
After the conviction of the Dera chief, his supporters rampaged in response, attacking railway stations, petrol stations and television vans in towns across Punjab and Haryana. Dozens of cars were burning in Panchkula town while a bloodied body lay in the middle of a road.
The media was attacked; a live broadcast van was set on fire and totally destroyed. An media engineer was held down by a mob and hit on the head.
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://greattelangaana.com/english/31-dead-250-injured/&media=https://greattelangaana.com/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017-08-25T132605Z_1_LYNXNPED7O125_RTROPTP_4_INDIA-GODMAN.jpg&description=More than 31 people were killed and over 250 injured on Friday in violence by supporters of self-appointed "godman" Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh){kind=link}