CHANDIGARH: Once again, a 40-day parole has been granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, five months after he received a similar parole in August last year.
Singh is lodged at Sunaria jail in Rohtak district of Haryana, where he is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples.
Sources said the Rohtak Divisional Commissioner approved the 40-day parole for the rape and murder convict Dera chief, and he is likely to be released on Sunday or Monday. Singh was sentenced in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. He and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.
This will be the 15th time Ram Rahim has been released from jail, either on parole or furlough, since his conviction. Besides the parole granted in August last year, he was given a 21-day furlough in April last year and a 30-day parole in January, ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls.
He was also granted a 20-day parole on October 1, 2024, days before the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections. Earlier, Singh was given a 21-day furlough in August 2024 and a three-week furlough from February 7, 2022, barely two weeks before the Punjab Assembly polls.
Sources pointed out that on 13 earlier occasions when the Dera chief was out of jail, he stayed at the Dera ashram in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh.
On previous occasions, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has criticised the Haryana government for granting parole to Ram Rahim Singh.