CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted the self-styled godman and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, almost seven years after a special court had convicted and sentenced him to life for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
While hearing appeals challenging the 2019 conviction in the case, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal passed the orders.
The Bench, however, has upheld the conviction of three other accused in the case. The operative part of the judgment was pronounced in the open court. However, the detailed copy of the judgment is still awaited.
The order came weeks after the Bench closely scrutinised the evidence following controversy over the bullets allegedly used in the commission of the offence.
The Bench had physically examined the fired “Lapua” soft-lead bullet allegedly bearing the forensic expert’s marking and signature to see whether it could have been accessed when the plastic container carrying it was said to be sealed with intact AIIMS seals.
The Dera Chief had challenged the conviction before the HC, claiming that he had been falsely implicated by the CBI in the case. He claimed that the first charge sheet against the other accused, Nirmal, Kuldeep and Krishan Lal was alerady filed and none of them had named the appellant to be involved in the conspiracy.
The appellant was not at all named in the first charge sheet filed by the state police in 2002. Krishan Lal was tortured by the CBI officials in this regard.
"The name of the Dera chief was thereafter included as an accused by way of revenge. The eyewitness version of the conspiracy was created by senior CBI officer, M Narayanan, for the present case in the form of Khatta Singh,” the counsel for Dera chief had submitted.
On January 17, 2019, the special CBI court in Panchkula had sentenced Dera chief and three others to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000. Chhatrapati was shot outside his residence in October 2002.
He ran a newspaper, 'Poora Sach' and published an anonymous letter narrating the alleged sexual exploitation of women followers at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa. The killing then followed and led to investigations involving Ram Rahim.
The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and it carried out the investigations. It later filed charges against Ram Rahim and others.
The CBI and also the counsel representing the deceased journalist's family had strongly opposed the plea of the Dera Chief.
It was in September last year that, after hearing all the parties, the High Court had reserved its verdict in the matter.
Since August 2017, the Dera chief has been lodged at the Sunaria jail in Rohtak after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the rape charges of two female devotees.
In May 2024, the High Court acquitted him in the 2002 murder case of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
Notably, he is also named in several FIRs linked to the 2015 sacrilege incidents that are still under investigation in Punjab.