NEW DELHI, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has charged a controversial self-syled spiritual leader sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping two women devotees and forcing over 400 followers to undergo castration.
"The charge sheet against 50-year-old Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was filed by CBI in a special court Thursday," a senior police official said Friday.
The charge sheet was filed by the CBI nearly three years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered an investigation by the country's premier probe agency into allegations of forced castration against the spiritual guru levelled by one of his former followers.
The petitioner had claimed that Singh forced over 400 followers to undergo castration at a hospital in his sect's headquarters in the northern state of Haryana to "get closer to God."
Singh is the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, which claims to have 60 million followers around the world. Currently serving his sentence in a jail in Haryana, he is also facing trial in two murder cases. If convicted, he could get a maximum of death penalty.
