Rape convict self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan has told the court he has no money to pay the compensation to the two rape victims.
Ram Rahim told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that he had renounced the world and couldn’t pay Rs. 30 Lakh ($60,000) to the two former followers who he raped at his ashram in Sirsa, Haryana.
The controversial godman is serving a prison sentence of 20 years after the court found him guilty in August of raping two of his former followers. On Monday, the high court heard his appeal against his conviction and sentence, and another petition by the victims seeking life imprisonment for Ram Rahim.
His lawyer told the court that since Ram Rahim’s properties had been attached, he couldn’t pay the compensation amount ordered by the trial court, The Tribune reported.
The high court’s bench observed that the compensation had to be paid as per the trial court orders and he could take recourse to the procedure prescribed under the law. It gave Ram Rahim two months to comply with the order.
Ram Rahim, in his petition against his conviction and sentence in rape cases, said the investigating agency did not get his potency test conducted despite his claim that he was not virile since 1990.
The dera chief sought the setting aside of the August 25 order convicting him of raping two dera followers and the order dated August 28 sentencing him to 20 years.
“The trial court presumed that because he is a father of children, his plea was not correct without ascertaining the age of his children,” his lawyer SK Garg Narwana told the high court.
On the other side, the lawyer for the victims told the court that the trial court should have awarded Ram Rahim the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Lawyer Navkiran Singh said Ram Rahim had committed a “grave breach of trust.” He had shattered the victims’ faith and exploited them physically and psychologically.
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