A member of the security forces reacts during violence in Panchkula, India, August 25, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is deploying thousands of riot police and shutting down internet services in two northern states, as it prepares for the sentencing on Monday of a self-styled 'godman' whose followers went on the rampage after he was convicted of rape on Friday.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's cult Dera Sacha Sauda has a vast rural following in Punjab and Haryana states, where frenzied mobs burnt down gas stations and train stations and torched vehicles after a local court found him guilty of raping two women in a 2002 case.
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