Rampal, a self-proclaimed preacher and head of Satlok Ashram in Haryana’s Hisar district, walked out of jail this week after nearly 12 years in custody. Videos of him entering his ashram have gone viral on Instagram since its release on Friday, with followers, who call him Sant Rampal, seeing it as a “triumphant return”. By Saturday, April 11, he had also given his first speech back.
The 75-year-old’s release came after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail in a 2014 sedition and violence case, citing his advanced age, long imprisonment and the slow pace of the trial.
On his return from prison, in his first satsang, He talked about his “battle against ignorance,” which he claimed to have won. After his return from what he called a “long struggle,” he said there had never been greater enthusiasm among his followers.
But his story as a Godfather figure spans more than three decades, with milestones published roughly every 10 years.
The reason that led him to prison dates back to 2014, when six of his followers were killed in a confrontation with the police who came to arrest him in a murder case.
The 2014 confrontation that led to his arrest
The case in which Rampal was not granted bail was not initiated by a new crime, but by his repeated defiance of court orders. Between 2010 and 2014, Rampal avoided court at least 42 times in connection with a 2006 murder case.
When the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a non-bailable warrant against him in November 2014, authorities moved to arrest him at Satlok Ashram in Barwala in Hisar district.
10 days A confrontation ensued.
Hundreds of Rampal’s followers surrounded the ashram and formed human chains to prevent police entry. HT reported at the time that his supporters attacked police with petrol bombs and acid bags in an attempt to prevent his arrest. Women and children were allegedly used as shields. The Haryana government cut off electricity and basic supplies to the ashram to force him out.
On 18-19 November 2014, police and paramilitary forces stormed the ashram. Five women and an 18-month-old baby were found dead inside the building during the siege. A number of police officers were also injured.
About 900 of Rampal’s followers were arrested with him that night. An FIR was registered at the Barwala police station, and the charges against him and his followers ranged from wrongful confinement to sedition, murder and criminal conspiracy.
Life imprisonment suspended, bail granted
He was convicted of killing six people found dead in an ashram, in one such case in 2018, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In August 2025, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed his life sentence. She cited his age, the length of time he had already been dead, and controversial medical evidence about the causes of death.
The court noted that the relatives of the deceased did not support the prosecution’s case, as some testified that the deaths were caused by suffocation by tear gas shells fired by the police during the siege and not by Rampal or his followers.
Even in the original 2006 Karuntha murder case – for which police went to arrest him in 2014, leading to the siege – he was acquitted four years ago.
Sedition and some other charges related to the 2014 siege remained. With this, the Supreme Court released him on bail on April 8, 2026, ending his detention for the time being.
“Considering the long imprisonment of the appellant/accused, which is over 11 years, and his age of about 75 years, and that the majority of the witnesses are yet to be examined, and for this reason the trial is unlikely to conclude in the near future, it is appropriate to release the appellant/accused on regular bail,” the apex court bench ruled, according to news agency PTI.
But the court ordered Rampal not to promote any kind of “mob mentality”.
Who is Rampal actually?
Rampal Singh Jatin was born on September 8, 1951, in Dhanana village of Gohana in Sonipat district, to a Jat family of farmers.
He trained as a civil engineer at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Nilokhiri, Karnal district, and worked as a junior engineer in the state government’s irrigation department. He served for approximately 15 years before resigning in May 1995. HT has reported.
He apparently left because he had a turning point in 1994, when he came into contact with a major saint, Panthi. Soon after, he renamed himself as ‘Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj’ and started promising his followers salvation. He established his own Satlok Ashram of the Kabir Panthi sect towards the end of the 1990s at Karuntha in Rohtak district initially. Soon his followers spread across Jhajjar and Rohtak. In later years he moved to the Beruwala ashram.
Rampal and the basic ideas of the Kabir Panth attract a large following among socially and economically marginalized communities, including Dalits and other backward classes. Jats and other communities are also drawn to the caste, as the teachings, in theory, provide a path to salvation regardless of caste.
He is said to be married to a woman named Anaru Devi and has two sons and two daughters.
According to Satlok Ashram On the Internet, the basic teaching of Rampal is that the Supreme God is the Great, and that all major interfaith scriptures refer to this. Followers must take formal training, called “nam”, from Rampal, after which they follow strict rules of conduct such as “the path to salvation”, to the eternal “abode or truth”, or satlok.
The website says it forbids idol worship, pilgrimage, untouchability, alcohol, tobacco and other intoxicants, and meat. The ashram says it is strictly against dowry system
His first brush with the law was in 2006, when he allegedly used obscene language against the Arya Samaj sect, leading to violent clashes in which a man was killed. He was arrested for murder and released on bail in 2008.
He later moved his base to the Burwala ashram in Hisar, where the 2014 confrontation took place.
