Chandigarh, Jan 5: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 40-day parole, nearly five months after he was given similar relief in August last year, sources said on Sunday.
Singh, who is lodged in Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak district, is serving a 20-year sentence awarded in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. The latest parole was approved by the Rohtak Divisional Commissioner and he is likely to be released on Sunday or Monday, the sources said.
This will be the 15th time Ram Rahim has come out of jail on parole or furlough since his conviction in 2017. Besides the rape conviction, Singh and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.
In recent years, his temporary releases have often coincided with Assembly elections in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. He was granted a 30-day parole in January this year ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls, a 21-day furlough in April, and a 20-day parole on October 1 last year, days before the Haryana Assembly elections.
Earlier, Singh was also given furloughs and paroles in August 2024 and February 2022, the latter coming shortly before the Punjab Assembly elections.
On most of the previous occasions when he was released from jail, Singh stayed at the Dera ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, sources said.
The repeated grant of parole to the Dera chief has drawn criticism from Sikh organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which have questioned the Haryana government’s decisions.
In May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Singh and four others in the 2002 murder case of the sect’s former manager Ranjit Singh, citing a “tainted and sketchy” investigation, overturning a life sentence awarded by a special CBI court.
The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a substantial following across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and several other states.
