Rape Convict Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Again Gets 40-Day Parole

Rohtak: Rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim was granted a 40-day parole by the Haryana Government on Tuesday. He will return to jail on September 14. Ram Rahim was released from Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak. It was the second time in three months that the rape convict was allowed to leave the prison.

The 57-year-old rape convict will stay at his Sirsa-headquartered Dera during the 40-day period beginning Tuesday, reported PTI, citing sources.

Earlier in April, the state government had released him on a 21-day furlough. In January, he was also granted a 30-day parole, ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls. Notably, from January 1 to September 14, the Dera chief will be out of jail for 91 days.

He was also granted a 20-day parole on October 1 last year, ahead of the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls.

Ram Rahim was convicted in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. In 2019, the Dera chief and three others were also convicted for the murder of a journalist, Ram Chander Chhatarpati.

Meanwhile, in May last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted the Dera chief and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh, citing "tainted and sketchy" investigations into the matter.

Earlier in 2021, a special CBI court sentenced them to life imprisonment in the Ranjit Singh murder case. It held Singh guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.