Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim granted 40-day parole, to stay at Sirsa headquarters
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim granted 40-day parole, to stay at Sirsa headquarters
The latest parole marks the 15th time that Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh steps out of jail since the conviction in August 2017. This parole comes after he was granted a similar 40-day parole in August last year.
New Delhi:
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for raping two of his disciples and is lodged at Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana, has once again been granted a 40-day parole, sources said on Sunday.
Convicted in August 2017, the latest parole marks the 15th time that Singh steps out of the jail since the conviction. This has been granted just months after he was allowed a similar 40-day parole in August last year.
Singh was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his followers. In 2019, the Dera chief and three others were also found guilty in the murder of a journalist that took place over 16 years ago.
Apart from the August parole, Singh was granted a 21-day furlough in April and a 30-day parole in January, shortly before the February 5 Delhi assembly elections last year.
On October 1, 2024, he was allowed a 20-day parole just days ahead of the October 5 Haryana assembly polls. Meanwhile, he was granted a 21-day furlough in August 2024.
Earlier, he was permitted a three-week furlough starting February 7, 2022, less than two weeks before the Punjab assembly elections.
Before the latest parole, Singh had been released from prison 14 times since his conviction in 2017.
Several Sikh organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, have previously criticised the repeated granting of parole and furloughs to Singh.
On many of the earlier occasions when he was released, Singh stayed at the Dera’s Baghpat ashram in Uttar Pradesh.
The Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda has a large following across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states. In Haryana, the Dera has a significant presence in districts such as Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
