Contempt for the law, displayed with muscle and propaganda

The contempt was on show in hundreds of booklets detailing names of judges and cases where they had allegedly asked for money for favourable rulings.

These booklets, distributed by the ashram, are now among the records with the Punjab and Haryana High Court that is hearing the contempt case against him.

Advocate Anupam Gupta, appointed amicus curiae the day before the court issued the first non-bailable warrant against Rampal, found that the booklets attacked not only judges of the lower courts in Rohtak and Hisar but also the judge of the high court who had granted him bail. The booklets detail cases against him as well as his devotees who, he claims, had not been given relief because they had not bribed the judges.

Another display of Rampal’s contempt for the judiciary had come during his few court appearances in Rohtak and Hisar in connection with a murder charge. Because his initial appearances in Rohtak led to hundreds of followers swarming the court complex, it was decided that the hearings would be held through videoconferencing with Rampal in Hisar.

A lawyer recalls what happened on July 14 last year, on Rampal’s first visit to the Hisar district court: “His followers began gathering on the court complex from the evening of July 13 and by morning there was a line of private Black Cat-styled commandos with lathis and weapons from the main gate to the court entrance. They took control of the entrance, and intimidated litigants and lawyers, When some lawyers clashed with them and the Bar Association held an emergency meeting in which a decision was taken to send a complaint to the high court, the followers dirtied the complex — verandahs and parking lots were littered with human faeces.”

Rampal’s brother Mahender Das told journalists, “The judiciary does not have the right to challenge his divine powers.” And amicus curiae Gupta, while arguing against Rampal’s bail, had told the court, “Regardless of when the formal funeral takes place, this trial is as good as dead,” and, “Rampal continues to fortify and become a state within a state.”