CHANDIGARH: Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough by the Haryana Government.
He walked out of Sunaria jail in Rohtak after Rohtak Divisional Commissioner passed an order in his favour. During his temporary release period, Singh reached the Dera ashram at Barnawa in Baghpat of Uttar Pradesh and after that released a shot video of few seconds and requested his followers not to come to the dera.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 9 had disposed of the petition of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak (SGPC) which challenged the grant of temporary release to Ram Rahim, observing that a plea for temporary release be considered by the competent authority without any arbitrariness or favoritism.
The high court left it to the Haryana prisons department to decide on the Dera chief’s application seeking furlough. In June this year Ram Rahim had moved the high court, seeking directions to grant him a 21-day furlough. On February 29, the HC had directed the Haryana Government not to grant further parole to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief without its permission. He had been granted a 50-day parole on January 19.
Singh is serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his disciples and is lodged in the Sunaria jail of Rohtak district.He was sentenced in 2017.
In 2019, Singh and three others were also convicted for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.
In May, 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 in the matter. A special CBI court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case. Singh had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.
Petition in High Court
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 9 had disposed of the petition of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak (SGPC) which challenged the grant of temporary release to Ram Rahim, observing that a plea for temporary release be considered by the competent authority without any arbitrariness or favoritism.