Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has once again been granted a 40-day parole. Singh, who is currently lodged at Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak district, will spend the parole period at the headquarters of his organisation in Sirsa district.
With this latest release, Singh will step out of prison for the 15th time since his conviction.
His most recent parole before this was a 40-day release granted by the Haryana government on August 5. Earlier, he was released on furlough for 21 days in April and was also granted a 30-day parole in January, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.
Singh is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera’s Sirsa headquarters.
In a separate case in 2021, Singh and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a former manager of the sect. However, in May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the murder case.
In February 2024, the High Court had directed the Haryana government that Singh could not be granted parole without the court’s permission. This direction came a month after he was released for 50 days, marking his seventh parole in 24 months and his ninth in four years.
Subsequently, in August 2024, the High Court stated that the application for temporary release filed by Singh should be decided by the competent authorities in accordance with the provisions of the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act, and that the decision must be taken without “favouritism or arbitrariness.”
The bench left the final decision on Singh’s application for furlough to the Haryana Prisons Department.
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