'Forgive me', teary Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh pleads with folded hands

Chandigarh: Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was presented before a special CBI court in Panchkula on Monday in connection with a 2002 rape case, pleaded the court to grant him mercy in the case. 

"Forgive me please," the 'tearful' Dera Sacha Sauda chief said with his hands folded before the judges in the special courtroom inside the Sunaria jail.

Soon after the court began the proceedings to award the quantum of punishment, Ram Rahim Singh’s counsel argued that "he is a social worker who has worked for welfare of people" and urged the judge to take a lenient view when awarding the quantum of sentence.

On August 25, the CBI court convicted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 rape case of two sadhvis inside the Dera sect.