Security was tightened in parts of Haryana and Punjab due to the sentencing of the convict Ram Rahim Singh and his three close aides, former sect manager Krishan Lal along with carpenters Kuldeep and Nirmal, by a special CBI court on Thursday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula, Haryana, will announce the quantum of punishment to them who were convicted on January 11 for conspiring to murder journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. Judge Jagdeep Singh will announce the sentencing.
Strict monitoring is done near the court complex in Sector 1 of Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh. Security has also been tightened in Haryana's Sirsa town, around 260 km from Chandigarh, where the sect's headquarter is located.
The Punjab Police has also taken preventive security measures in the neighbouring state as the sect has lakhs of followers in Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur.
Dera Sacha sauda chiefs conviction on August 25, 2017, had led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa, leaving 41 people dead and over 260 injured.
The authorities were allowed in Haryana to produce the discredited Chief and three others before it through video-conferencing for their sentencing by the court on Wednesday
Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who edited a newspaper in Sirsa, was shot five times on October 24, 2002. He died later that year on November 21 in a hospital in New Delhi.
