Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh: Indian guru revered by millions jailed for 20 years for raping followers

Followers of flamboyant and controversial 'godman' went on deadly rampage after he was convicted

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at a news conference to launch the score for his film 'MSG-2 The Messenger' in Mumbai (AFP)

A self-styled Indian “godman” has been sentenced to 20 years in jail after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two female followers.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh‘s followers went on a deadly rampage after he was convicted of rape last week, with at least 38 killed and more than 200 injured in protests in Haryana state.

The Dera Sacha Sauda cult has a vast rural following in the states of Punjab and Haryana.

As a result, a curfew has been imposed in several areas of the states, and the capital Delhi has been placed on alert.

The army is on standby and police have been given “shoot on sight” orders, the BBC reports.

The flamboyant and controversial spiritual guru’s sentence was pronounced amid intense security at a prison in the northern town of Rohtak, where the guru, who calls himself Dr Saint Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim Insan, has been detained since his conviction.

The prison has been transformed into a fortress, with journalists banned from approaching within a mile and roads lined with barbed-wire barricades.

Initial reports said Singh was handed a 10-year sentence, but it emerged he had been jailed for 10 years for each rape consecutively.

In 2015, Singh started a film franchise portraying him as MSG or “Messenger of God”, performing miracles, preaching to thousands and beating up gangsters while singing and dancing.