1 week Ago By Press Trust Of India
New Delhi: Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough. Singh walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak on Wednesday morning, sources said.In January, the 57-year-old Sirsa-headquartered sect chief was granted a 30-day parole.
Singh is serving a 20-year sentence given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has several followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states. In Haryana, the Dera has a sizable number of followers in many districts including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
In February, the Supreme Court declined to hear a plea from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) regarding the temporary release of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.In 2017, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his disciples. On January 3, the Supreme Court agreed to review the CBI’s appeal against the acquittal of Singh and four others in the 2002 murder of Ranjit Singh, who was a former manager of the sect.
Previously, in May of the last year, the high court had acquitted Singh and the four others involved in the murder case, attributing the decision to a “tainted and sketchy” investigation..
