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Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh arrived at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa from Sunaria Jail in Rohtak after being granted 21-day parole.
Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year sentence in the rape case and has been granted parole multiple times in the past. Meanwhile, in a separate case, on August 10, the Supreme Court admitted the appeal challenging the acquittal of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the 2002 murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, overturning his earlier conviction by a special CBI court. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana agreed to hear the appeal filed by the slain journalist's son against the acquittal. The bench has posted the appeal for final hearing in the week commencing November 16. During the hearing, when the bench was told that the State government has not filed an appeal against the High Court verdict, the bench said, "We are also conscious of the fact that the State might not come in appeal." The High Court allowed Ram Rahim's appeal against the trial court's conviction, ruling that the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and noting gaps/coercion in the CBI witness testimony. Ram Rahim was accused of orchestrating the killing of Ram Chandra Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist, for openly criticising the Dera chief in his newspaper. The journalist was shot outside his home in Haryana's Sirsa in October 2002. Chhatrapati, who ran the local newspaper Poora Sach, had published an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of female followers at the Dera's headquarters in Sirsa. In 2019, a Special CBI court found him guilty and pronounced life imprisonment in the case. Along with Ram Rahim, three other convicts - Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal - were also found guilty in the murder case and were awarded life imprisonment. (ANI)
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