Gurmeet Ram Rahim to Asaram Bapu: Self-styled godmen facing criminal charges

The self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples. On March 1, Punjab and Haryana HC directed Haryana government "not to consider" any application for parole "without permission of this court". In 2017, a CBI court sentenced him to 20 years in prison and fined him Rs 30 lakh. (Photo: PTI)

The 81-year-old self styled godman is currently lodged in a Jodhpur jail serving life sentence for raping a minor girl at his ashram in Rajasthan in 2013. The Supreme Court on March 1 refused to entertain his plea suspension of sentence in the rape case He reportedly had 400 ashrams in India and abroad at the time of his conviction. (Photo: PTI)

In 2010, local channels aired footage of the swami in a compromising position with a Tamil actress after which he was booked for rape and indulging in unnatural sex. After receiving bail, he reportedly fled and claims to have found refuge in the self declared island of 'Kailasa.' Recently he claimed that he was invited to the Ram temple consecration ceremony ( Photo: PTI)

Ichchadhari Bhimanand was convicted of running high profile sex racket. Shreemurath Dwivedi started as a guard at a hotel in Delhi in 1988 before reinventing himself as Bhimanand. He was arrested in 2010 for running a high-profile sex racket. ( Photo: BCCL)

Swami Premananda was given two consecutive life sentences for raping 13 girls in 1997. Originally from Sri Lanka, he was a controversial 'godman' who established his ashrams and amassed a huge number of followers. By the time he was convicted, his ashram had branches in UK, Belgium, Switzerland and many other countries. ( Photo: BCCL)

The Mumbai based 'guru' was famous for performing rituals for celebrities. According to the Delhi Police, his controversial actions in public glare include - slapping a woman on Television, issuing a 'casual' death threat to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, calling environmental activist Vimlendu Jha a CIA agent and terrorist, and planning to kidnap Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan because they married Hindu girls. ( Photo: PTI)

Sant Rampal was arrested by Haryana police after they found dead bodies of five women and an 18-month-old infant at his Satlok ashram in Hisar, Haryana. Police faced stiff resistance when thousands of his followers, armed with bottles of acid and guns and coordinating the attack with walkie-talkies tried to prevent his arrest. ( Photo: PTI)