Operation to arrest ‘godman’ Rampal cost over Rs 26 crore

CHANDIGARH: The mas-sive operation to locate and arrest controversial ‘god-man’ Rampal cost the exche-quer over Rs 26 crore, the Punjab and Haryana high court was on Friday told.
Amidst tight security, Rampal was produced before a division bench of justices M Jeyapaul and Darshan Singh here which adjourned the case to December 23 when Rampal would be produced along with co-accused Ram Pal Dhaka and O P Hooda.
Haryana DGP S N Vashisht submitted a detailed report of the operation at Satlok Ashram at Barwala in Hisar leading to the arrest of Rampal after large-scale violence.
The states of Haryana and Punjab besides the Chandigarh administration and Union of India submitted reports of the expenditure incurred in connection with the operation to arrest Rampal for production in the High Court in the contempt case.
As per the figures presented by the states, Haryana spent Rs 15.43 crore on locating and arresting Rampal, Punjab Rs 4.34 crore, Chandigarh administration Rs 3.29 crore and Union of India Rs 3.55 crore, totaling Rs 26.61 crore
The bench asked the  DGP, Haryana, to submit medical report of those injured. The court also asked the police to verify the antece-dents of 909 arrested in con-nection with the violence at Satlok Ashram at Barwala for arresting Rampal.
63-year-old Rampal was arrested on November 19 after a two-week tense standoff between his supporters and the police after close to 15,000 of his followers were evacuated from the sprawling premises.
During the standoff between Rampal’s followers and the police, five women and a child had died.(PTI)