PANCHKULA, India: Several cities in north India were under a security lockdown Thursday ahead of a verdict in a rape trial involving a controversial and hugely popular spiritual leader.
Tens of thousands of followers of the flamboyant guru, or leader, of the quasi-religious sect Dera Sacha Sauda have gathered in the town of Panchkula where a special court is set to announce a verdict on Friday.
The guru, who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, has denied the charges of raping two of his female followers.
The case was investigated by India’s top agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, and a special CBI court will announce the verdict.
While a security blockade has been put up around the court complex, beyond it thousands of followers squatted along the roads. Men and women, some with children and babies, had spread out blankets and bedsheets and settled down to wait for the verdict.
Nearly 6,000 police and paramilitary soldiers have spread out in Panchkula alone and thousands more have fanned out in nearby areas fearing violence in the event of a guilty verdict. More troops have been kept on standby.
In Panchkula and the neighboring city of Chandigarh three sports stadiums have been set aside to act as makeshift prisons in case of violence, police said.
Chandigarh has also sealed its border for the next two days to prevent the violence from spilling over.
The sect claims to have 50 million followers and runs a spiritual empire that promotes vegetarianism and campaigns against drug addiction.
Religious sects like the Dera Sacha Sauda have huge followings in India. It’s not unusual for leaders of these sects to often have small, heavily armed private militias protecting them.
In 2007 clashes between the Dera Sacha Sauda followers and members of the Sikh faith in north India had left at least three people dead.
In 2014 six people were killed as followers of another popular religious leader, guru Rampal, fought pitched battles with police who were attempting to arrest him for contempt of court after he repeatedly failed to appear in court in connection with a murder trial.
On Thursday police were checking all vehicles entering Haryana state where both the court house and the guru’s ashram are located. People carrying food and bedding, and therefore likely to be joining the swelling crowds around the courthouse, were being turned away.
Local administrators have asked that schools, colleges and offices remain closed Thursday and Friday. All public transport in and around the town will also remain off the roads.
Security lockdown in north India ahead of verdict in guru’s rape trial
Security lockdown in north India ahead of verdict in guru’s rape trial
Zelensky says Russia preparing for new ‘year of war’
- Putin earlier said Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday Russia was preparing to wage a new “year of war” on his country in 2026, after his counterpart Vladimir Putin said Moscow would “certainly” achieve its objectives.
“Today, we heard yet another signal from Moscow that they are preparing to make next year a year of war,” Zelensky said in his regular evening address.
The statement was a reaction to Putin, who earlier said Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own, amid a flurry of international diplomacy to end the war.
“The goals of the special military operation will certainly be achieved,” Putin told a meeting with defense ministry officials in Moscow, using the Kremlin’s wording for the nearly four-year war.
“We would prefer to do this and eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy,” he said, vowing to seize the Ukrainian lands Russia claims to have annexed “by military means” if “the opposing country and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions.”
Putin’s hawkish comments come as Ukraine on Monday hailed “progress” made on the question of future security guarantees for Kyiv, after two days of talks with US President Donald Trump’s envoys in Berlin.
But according to Zelensky, differences remain on the question of what territories Ukraine would have to cede to Russia.
Washington’s initial proposal — criticized by Ukraine and its allies as overly favorable to Russia — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognize the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.
Zelensky at EU summit
The current contents of the revised plan remain unclear.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin said Russia was waiting for information from the US on the outcome of the talks in Berlin.
“We expect that, as soon as they are ready, our American counterparts will inform us of the results of their work with the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In September 2022, Russia claimed to have officially annexed the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions, even though it did not have full military control over all of them.
Zelensky is expected to attend a summit in Brussels on Thursday to lobby European Union leaders to adopt a plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s defenses.
He said in his evening address that Putin’s bellicose signals “are not only for us.”
“It is important that our partners see this, and important that they not only see it but also respond, including our partners in the United States of America, who often say that Russia supposedly wants to end the war,” he said, accusing Moscow of trying to “undermine diplomacy.”
