At least 13 dead in violent protests after Ram Rahim's rape conviction: police

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - At least 13 people have died in North India in violent protests after a court on Friday convicted a self-styled "godman" guilty of rape, a senior state police official said. "Thirteen deaths have been confirmed so far in Panchkula and two are critically injured," a police official at the Haryana Police headquarters in Panchkula, a city in north India, told Reuters by phone. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group, was held guilty of raping two women followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda group in the northern town of Sirsa. (Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Malini Menon)