Gurmeet Ram Rahim is currently serving a 20-year prison term in Rohtak's Sunaria Jail. (File)
After self-styled 'godman' Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, 52, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a journalist, the journalist's son termed it a "triumph of truth."
The journalist, Ramchander Chhatrapati, was murdered in 2002 after he published content on sexual exploitation of women in Ram Rahim's ashram in Haryana's Sirsa.
His son, Anshul Chhatrapathi Verma, said: "This is the triumph of truth, I feel relieved today. The prosecution had demanded capital punishment but we are satisfied with the punishment."
"Though we were demanding capital punishment but this sentence is no less than the death sentence as he will not be able to come out of the jail for his entire life. He will be behind bars till his last breath," Shreyasi Chhatrapati, the journalist's daughter, said.
"Gurmeet will now remember his crime every day and then weep while being in jail," she said. "We are satisfied with the quantum of punishment pronounced by the court."
An eye-witness in the case, Khatta Singh, who was also present during the pronouncement of sentence, said: "I am very thankful to all investigative officials, the CBI team and the court for giving justice."
Chhatrapati was shot in October 2002 outside his house after his newspaper ''Poora Sach'' published an anonymous letter narrating how women were being sexually exploited by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at the sprawling, 800-acre headquarters of the Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa.
The case, in which Ram Rahim was named the main conspirator, was registered in 2003 and handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2006. The three others convicted - Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal - are lodged in Ambala Jail.