Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh out on 30-day parole, marks 16th release since conviction

ROHTAK (Haryana): Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the Sadhvi sexual assault case, has once again been released from Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail after being granted 30-day parole by the competent state authority, marking his 16th temporary release since his conviction.

The self-styled godman walked out of Sunaria Jail at around 6:34 am, with minimal visible security arrangements during his exit. Confirming the development, his advocate Jitendra Khurana said, “He has got the parole today. It has been given by the competent authority of the state. He has been granted parole for 30 days”. He further added, “He will stay in his Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa, during the parole.”

#WATCH | Haryana | Rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been released from Sunaria prison in Rohtak after being granted 30-day parole, arrives in Sirsa pic.twitter.com/ifkW47oXNI

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Ram Rahim was first lodged in Sunaria Jail in August 2017 following his conviction and has since been released multiple times on parole or furlough, including a 40-day parole earlier this year in January, after which he returned to jail on February 15.

Earlier on March 7, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati’s murder case, the self-styled godman’s lawyer confirmed.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim was accused of orchestrating the killing of Ramchandra Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist, for openly criticising the Dera chief in his newspaper. In 2019, a Special CBI court found him guilty and pronounced life imprisonment in the case. Along with Ram Rahim, three other convicts — Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal — were also found guilty in the murder case and were awarded life imprisonment. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court delivered the verdict, acquitting Ram Rahim.

Earlier, in 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief and four others in the 2002 murder case of a former Dera official. The Special CBI court of Panchkula had sentenced all the accused, including Gurmeet Ram Rahim and four others, to life imprisonment in the murder case of Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

It was alleged that Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra, was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of District Kurukshetra in Haryana.

This is not the first instance of parole granted to the self-styled godman, whose temporary releases in the past have drawn political criticism and security concerns. (ANI)