(This story originally appeared in on Aug 26, 2017)

PANCHKULA: When special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh held him guilty on Friday, Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh could not understand what the judge had said. In fact, when the counsel pronuounced him guilty, he was shocked. According to the public prosecutor for CBI HPS Verma, who was present inside the courtroom, the dera head remained in a state of shock for some time.Gurmeet sat with his hands folded together all through the hearing. He was in court for half-an-hour and two senior officers of CBI, one IGP rank officer, one CBI counsel and a defence counsel were also present. He was immediately taken into custody by the police after the verdict.Following the arrest, the police officials took him into a Scorpio car parked outside the court and told him to record an appeal on a special camera asking his followers to maintain peace.Thereafter, other vehicles in the cavalcade that accompanied him from Sirsa to Panchkula were asked to leave the area. Ram Rahim was then flown out of Panchkula in a helicopter. According to the police, he was taken to Rohtak, where he would be locked in a designated jail.Normally the convicts pronounced by the Panchkula court are taken to Ambala-based Central Jail, Gurmeet Ram Rahim was taken to Rohtak after the state authorities apprehended gathering of his followers outside Ambala jail. In Rohtak region, the dera sect has hardly any influence or mass following.He won't be produced before the special CBI court in Panchkula again on Monday at the time of pronouncing the quantum of sentence. He would be attending the proceedings through video conference