Hisar, November 16
What will happen tomorrow — will the police arrest sect head Rampal or tell the court they couldn’t? Going by the mood around the “fortified” Satlok Ashram, Rampal’s redoubt, the sick “godman” will not be in a position to even step out on his own no matter what.

Rampal continues to elude the police “resting” in the ashram guarded by women devotees and little children. His followers say their “parmatma” (god) remains “unwell” and cannot appear before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has issued non-bailable warrants against him in a contempt case. While nobody has seen the sect head in over a month, his devotees, spread out along the length of the rooftop, keep track of the movement of police force at a distance.

They also line the boundary wall and block the ashram gate to prevent the police from moving closer. The elusive sect head, his followers maintain, is being “targeted” by courts only because the Rashtriya Samaj Sewa Samiti has published three books “exposing” the judiciary. “Who are the courts to ask Guruji to be present anywhere? They cannot question ‘god’ and they dare not order him,” says Mumbai resident Vidya (45), an ex-serviceman’s wife. She is among the many women who have been camping outside the Satlok Ashram to protest against the “unjust” courts for summoning the sect head to court. “He will not surrender. We will not allow ‘parmatma’ to be humiliated like that. Let the court first order a CBI probe into the cases against him and let the judiciary be made accountable before they can even think of seeing him in person,” says Hisar resident Suman, sitting outside the ashram. As Rampal’s sermons play on loudspeakers to keep the “sangat” in high spirits, any attempt by the Haryana Police and central forces to step inside the last checkpoint a km away is met with slogans of “Jai Guruji”.

The women and children are in the forefront, as the “frontline of attack” against any coercive means to arrest the sect head. Even little children, appear well-briefed. Deepmmala (9) from UP’s Mainpuri says: “We want justice for our Guruji. The only way he will go out of the ashram is over our dead bodies. No force can take him away.”

Holding a placard, Aarzu (7) from Rohtak has been “missing” school to be at the ashram to protect “parmatna”. “I sit here with my mother in the morning and sleep here at night. Parmatma has given us a quilt so that we don’t feel cold,” she says.

• Uncertainty over the HC appearance of Rampal persists as the talks between godman's followers and the district administration remained inconclusive on Sunday
• Satlok Ashram spokesperson Raj Kapoor said: "In view of his health condition, Rampal is unlikely to appear in the HC on Monday."
• The spokesperson, however, said if the godman's condition improves, he might appear in the court