Rape-murder convict Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim gets 40-day parole, his 14th release since 2017

The Print

a day ago

Around 6:30 am Tuesday, Ram Rahim drove out of the jail in a convoy of seven SUVs under tight security, including two bulletproof Toyota Land Cruisers and two Toyota Fortuners, and headed directly to the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa.
This comes just days ahead of his 58th birthday on 15 August, also India's Independence Day. His birthday is celebrated with much fanfare at the Dera Sacha Sauda's headquarters in Sirsa, where Ram Rahim will be staying during his parole.
Gurugram: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted in rape and murder cases, walked out of the Rohtak's Sunaria jail Tuesday on a 40-day parole, his fourteenth release since his arrest in 2017.
Sources said Ram Rahim sought parole to celebrate his birthday and preside over the sect's annual tree-planting drive, a signature event that witnesses lakhs of saplings being planted by his followers.
Ram Rahim was convicted in August 2017 for raping two disciples, and was given a jail term of 20 years. In 2019, he was convicted for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and two years later for the murder of Dera manager Ranjit Singh. In both these cases, he has been awarded life imprisonment.
Ram Rahim's latest parole follows a pattern of regular temporary releases. The Dera chief has will have spent nearly a year—364 days to be precise—outside jail since 2022, when the current parole ends, raising questions on the Haryana government's policies on parole under BJP rule.
On May 28 last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him and four others in the Ranjit Singh murder case. The CBI's appeal against his acquittal is pending before the Supreme Court.
His last release was on April 9, 2025, when he was given a 21-day furlough for the celebrations of the Dera's foundation day in Sirsa.
Also Read: Rape-murder convict Ram Rahim out on furlough again, his 13th release since conviction in 2017
Victim family 'frustrated'
Anshul Chhatrapati, son of slain journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, said frequent paroles and furloughs for Ram Rahim make the victim's family feel frustrated and that is why he has stopped responding to media queries now.
'However, this time I will give my reaction because I have a strong reason for this,' Anshul told ThePrint Tuesday, adding Ram Rahim's appeal against conviction in his father's murder case is being heard almost on a daily basis since 21 July by a division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
'Under these circumstances, the state government should not have given him the benefit of paroles or furloughs,' Anshul said.
Sudesh Kumari, the general secretary of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, who led a prolonged agitation against the Dera after Chhatrapati's murder, said that people have stopped getting shocked and surprised at the frequent paroles and furloughs being granted to him.
'Ram Rahim has all the qualities that suit the BJP's style of politics. They need people who can drive people towards superstitions and drift them away from a scientific temperament. The BJP believes in getting people's votes by misguiding them in the name of religion. This is the reason we witness incidents of Muslims being beaten up or their shops or rehris being damaged,' she said.
'Ram Rahim's second quality is what he was first convicted for 20 years of imprisonment. The BJP has dual standards on women's safety. The party talks big on these issues, but does exactly the opposite. Everyone saw PM Modi seeking votes for Prajwal Revanna. But did PM ever expressed any regret or remorse for having campaigned for him after Revanna was convicted for rape?' she asked.
ThePrint reached Chief Minister Nayab Saini's media advisor Parveen Attrey, information department media coordinator Ashok Chhabra and Haryana BJP spokesperson Sanjay Sharma through calls but they did not respond. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
A district-level BJP leader, however, denied that the government was giving any special treatment to the Dera Chief. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he rejected Sudesh Kumari's allegations and said the BJP government accords top priority to women's safety and works on the principle of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' without any discrimination based on religion or caste.
The paroles
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted 14 temporary releases from jail after his first conviction in 2017.
His first two emergency releases in October 2020 and May 2021 were for a day each to meet his ailing mother, as under the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 1988, he was not entitled to get benefit of temporary releases.
However, after the Haryana government amended this act in 2022, which some alleged was done to benefit Ram Rahim Singh, he will have spent 364 days out jail between February 2022 to August 2025.
During this period, he got a 21-day furlough on February 7, 2022, before the Punjab Assembly elections; 30-day parole on June 17, 2022 ahead of the Haryana municipal elections; and a 40-day parole on October 15, 2022 before the Adampur assembly byelection in Punjab.
In 2023, Ram Rahim got 40-day parole on 21 January ahead of his predecessor Shah Satnam Singh's birth anniversary on 25 January; 30-day parole on June 20, before the Haryana panchayat elections; and 21-day furlough on 21 November, ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly elections.
In 2024, before the Lok Sabha elections, he got 50-day parole on January 19; 21-day furlough on August 13 ahead of his 57th birthday, and 20-day parole on October 3, days before the Haryana Assembly elections.
In the current year, Ram Rahim got 30-day parole, a week before the Delhi Assembly elections on January 28; 21-day furlough, around the Dera's foundation day on April 9 and now, 40-day parole ahead of his 58th birthday on August 5.
These releases, often aligning with significant electoral or personal milestones, have allowed him to stay at Dera headquarters in Sirsa or ashrams in Bagpat, sparking debates over the timing and frequency of his temporary freedom.
The modified parole laws
The Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 1988 sets a set of circumstances for granting parole, including death in the family, critical illness, marriage, or farm requirements etc.
Anshul Chhatrapati alleged that the government amended this law in 2022 by doing away with the conditions to help Ram Rahim Singh, who didn't fall under any of the conditions mentioned in the 1988 law.
Under the 2022 Act, convicts who have received more than 10 years of imprisonment are eligible for 10 weeks of parole every year, which can be taken in two instalments, with the duration spent outside added to the period of punishment.
Besides this, the prisoner is entitled to 21 days of furlough every year.
Sudesh Kumari, however, alleged that the certificate of good conduct is issued by the authorities who are under the state government.
A senior official from the Haryana Prisons Department, however, told The Print on the condition of anonymity that the state replaced the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 1988, with the 2022 iteration to 'streamline' the process.
'The new Act makes the process less hassled, and paroles are issued on the basis of good conduct and administrative clearance,' the officer explained to The Print.
The head of Dera Sacha Sauda has had good equations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose leaders were seen advocating for him even ahead of his 2017 conviction.
Three years before his sentencing in rape and murder cases, senior BJP leaders, including then Haryana in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, visited the Dera headquarters in Sirsa. Vijayvargiya took 44 BJP candidates with him to meet Ram Rahim and seek his blessings before the Haryana Assembly elections in 2014.
Before this, the Dera Sacha Sauda extended its open support to the BJP with its followers participating in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally at Sirsa on 11 October, 2014, with banners of the Dera.
Months before his conviction, Ram Rahim Singh shared a dais with then chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar during a joint sanitation campaign by the local authorities and the Dera at Karnal on 6 May 2017.
Since 2014, the Dera has publicly extended electoral support to the BJP, with a strong call to back the party in Haryana assembly elections made at a clandestine meeting at Sirsa 5 October 2024, immediately after Ram Rahim's 20-day parole.
Cases against Ram Rahim
Ram Rahim's legal trouble started in 2017 when a special CBI court in Panchkula sentenced him to 20 years for raping two female disciples. In 2019, he was convicted for murdering journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, and in 2021, for killing Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the Ranjit Singh case in May 2024 on grounds of 'tainted and sketchy' investigations, but the Supreme Court is now hearing a CBI appeal.
Further, Ram Rahim is on trial for reportedly castrating men in the Sirsa ashram, a case that critics have said would be tainted by the frequency of his visits to the Dera.
The Dera Sacha Sauda, started by Shah Mastana in 1948 and headed by Shah Satnam Singh from 1963 until 1990, became a socio-spiritual organisation under Ram Rahim with a huge following in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and beyond.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: Why a Panchkula court has allowed prime witness to appear virtually in castration case against Ram Rahim