Dera chief Ram Rahim gets parole yet again; Govt says no political motive

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving 20 years imprisonment term for raping two of his disciples, has been granted 50-day parole on Friday. The parole comes two months after the Ram Rahim had walked out of the jail in November 2023when he was granted a 21-day furlough — his third temporary release from jail in 2023.
He is slated to visit the Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram in Barnawa, located in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat, as per the sources of the police department.

The Dera chief had walked out of the Sunaria jail on a 30-day parole on July 30, 2023. He was granted a 40-day parole in January last year as well. In total, he was granted parole three times, totalling 91 days last year, the maximum limit of the parole.
He was granted a parole of one month and three -week in June 2022 and on February 7, 2022.

During his temporary release period, Ram Rahim is bound to follow a certain set of regulations and would abide by norms of Haryana Prisoners Act, 2022.
Along with four others, Ram Rahim was also convicted for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager. He, along with three others, was convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.

With a prominent following in several states including Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, he has been released from jail on parole and furlough for different reasons, including his appeal to visit his ailing mother. Notably, he has been in jail since August 2017.

The BJP-led government has dismissed the allegations of trying to gain political mileage by granting parole Gurmeet Ram Rahim. The government said that there was no such political motive behind his parole.