NEW DELHI: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was released from Sunaria jail in Haryana on Tuesday (Aug 25) morning after being granted a 21-day furlough, with the jailed sect chief set to stay at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa during the temporary release.
Ram Rahim left the Rohtak jail at around 6.05am, nearly two months after he returned to prison following his previous parole.
His latest release marks the 17th occasion since his conviction in 2017 that he has been allowed out of prison on parole or furlough, according to details of his temporary releases.
The 59-year-old sect chief was granted 40 days’ parole in January and another 30 days’ parole on May 26. He returned to Sunaria jail on June 26.
Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year sentence after a special CBI court in Panchkula convicted him in August 2017 of raping two female followers. He was sentenced to 10 years for each case.
The Dera chief was subsequently convicted in two murder cases, although those convictions have since been overturned.
In the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, Ram Rahim was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special CBI court in 2021 for conspiracy to murder. The Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the case in May 2024.
He was also sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2019 for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who had published an anonymous letter alleging the sexual exploitation of a Dera follower in his newspaper Poora Sach.
Chhatrapati was shot dead in October 2002.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Ram Rahim in the Chhatrapati murder case on March 7, 2026. Chhatrapati’s son challenged the acquittal before the Supreme Court, which in August agreed to hear the appeal.
Ram Rahim, however, remains in prison in connection with the two rape convictions, for which he is serving the 20-year sentence. - The Statesman/ANN
