Rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim out on parole for 40 days, walks out for 14th time since 2017
PTC News Desk: Rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been granted a 40-day parole three months after he was given a 21-day furlough. He walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak, reportedly for the 14th time since 2017.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017 for raping two of his female followers. In 2019, he and three others were also found guilty in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati.
On 40-day parole granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, his counsel, Advocate Jatinder Khurana says, "Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been given 40-day parole under the law. Every convict has the right to avail a 70-day parole and a 21-day furlough in a year. During this 40-day parole, he will stay in his Sirsa ashram."
Additionally, he received a life sentence for orchestrating the 2002 killing of his manager, Ranjit Singh. However, in May 2024, Ram Rahim and four co-accused — Avtar Singh, Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, and Sabdil Singh — were acquitted in the manager’s murder case due to what the court described as “tainted and sketchy” investigations.
On April 9, he was granted a 21-day furlough, following an earlier 20-day parole in January 2024.
Several of the rape convict’s previous paroles and furloughs have notably coincided with election periods in Punjab, Haryana, and nearby states.
In 2022 alone, he was released three times — in February for 21 days during the Punjab Assembly elections, in June for a month around Haryana civic polls, and in October for 40 days during by-elections in Haryana. He was also out on parole for 40 days in October 2020, during the Haryana Assembly elections.
- PTC NEWS
