'Godman' goes down in India

On Wednesday, police arrested Rampal Maharaj on several charges, including conspiracy to murder. The guru's capture followed a police siege of "Baba" Rampal's sprawling 12-acre (5-hectare) ashram, about 170 kilometers (100 miles) from New Delhi in the northern Indian state of Haryana, after he refused to appear in court to answer a summons on a bail hearing. Police took the 63-year-old Rampal away in an ambulance for a medical examination.

"He is in police custody until tomorrow," Inspector-General Anil Kumar Rao, who had led the operation, said late Wednesday. "He will be produced before the high court."

The bodies of four women were found Wednesday inside the complex where Rampal had hidden out, police said. A toddler and a fifth woman, who was apparently suffering from a heart condition, died after being taken to hospital, he said. All bodies were to undergo a postmortem analysis.

'Using his devotees'

The engineer-turned-guru was wanted in connection to a 2006 case in which he allegedly ordered his devotees to fire on residents of a nearby village, leaving at least one person dead. Efforts to detain Rampal, who had ignored 43 court summonses since 2010, began in earnest on Tuesday, when riot police attempting to force their way inside the compound were met with fierce resistance from the guru's supporters. Nearly 200 people were injured in the ensuing clashes, the better portion of them police.

"The godman was using his devotees as a human shield," regional police head Shriniwas Vashisht told reporters. "They know that we will not allow innocent women and children to be caught in the crossfire and they are taking advantage of that."

The police, under pressure to produce Rampal in the Punjab and Haryana high court, had cut off water supply and electricity to the ashram, before swinging into action on Tuesday. Thousands of policemen had advanced towards the ashram, forcibly removing women squatting at the gates. Some of Rampal's followers fought back, perched on high walls and bearing firearms, stones, and acid and petrol bombs.

In the run-up to and as a result of the standoff prosecutors have filed fresh charges - including treason and stockpiling arms - against Rampal and some of his key aides. Throughout Wednesday, police used loudspeakers to ask the thousands of people holed up in the ashram to leave and Rampal to surrender. Many people - men, women and children - streamed out of the complex, past the rubble of the high compound walls broken down by the police.

mkg/glb (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)