Kumar Bahukhandi
This file photo taken on September 8, 2015 shows Indian chief of the religious sect Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at a news conference to launch the score for his film ‘MSG-2 The Messenger’ in Mumbai.Troops lined the streets of a city in north India on August 25, 2017 after tens of thousands of distraught devotees of an Indian sect leader dubbed the “guru in bling” headed there to await a verdict in his rape trial. / AFP PHOTO
Singh will come out of prison for the 15th time since he was convicted in 2017.
Chandigarh: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples and is currently lodged in the Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak, was again granted a 40-day parole, said sources on Sunday January 4 , 20256 .
His latest parole comes months after he was granted a similar parole in August last year. Singh will come out of prison for the 15th time since he was convicted in 2017.
The Dera Sacha Sauda head is serving a 20-year sentence given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. Singh and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.
He was granted a 21-day furlough in April 2025 and a 30-day parole in January 2025, ahead of the February 5 Delhi assembly polls.
Similarly, he was allowed a 20-day parole on October 1, 2024, days before the October 5 Haryana assembly polls.
n August 2024, Singh was granted a 21-day furlough. He was also permitted a three-week furlough from February 7, 2022, barely two weeks before the Punjab assembly polls.
Prior to his latest parole, Singh has come out of prison 14 times since being convicted in 2017.
Sikh organisations, such as Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, have in the past criticised the grant of relief to Singh.
In May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Singh and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect’s former manager Ranjit Singh, citing “tainted and sketchy” investigations into the matter.
Earlier, a special CBI court sentenced them to life imprisonment in this case. It held Singh guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.
On many of the 13 occasions in the past, when Singh was out of jail, he remained at the Dera’s ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Bagpat district.
The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states. In Haryana, the Dera has a sizable number of followers in many districts, including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
( Source : PTI )
