Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim gets 21-day furlough; to stay at Sirsa headquarters

Chandigarh: Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough.

Singh walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak on Wednesday morning. He went to the headquarters of his Dera in Haryana's Sirsa and will stay there during the period.

He has been granted a 21-day furlough, Dera spokesperson and advocate Jitender Khurana said.

In a video clip, Singh could be heard congratulating his followers ahead of the Dera's foundation day.

Dera Sacha Sauda was founded on April 29, 1948, by Baba Shah Mastana.

In January, Singh was granted a 30-day parole, which came ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls.

Singh is serving a 20-year sentence given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.

The Dera chief Singh was granted a 20-day parole on October 1 last year. That had also come ahead of the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls.

In the past, some of Singh's paroles and furloughs have coincided with polls in Punjab, Haryana and neighbouring states.

Sikh organisations like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee have in the past criticised the grant of relief to Singh.

In August last year, Singh was granted a 21-day furlough. He was granted three weeks' furlough from February 7, 2022, barely two weeks before the Punjab Assembly polls.

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

A special CBI court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case. Singh had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.

The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states. In Haryana, the Dera has a sizable number of followers in many districts including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.