Court grants bail to Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, serving a jail term in two rape cases, was Friday granted bail in a case related to the alleged castration of 400 of his followers.

However, Ram Rahim Singh would remain in jail as he is serving sentence for raping two of his women followers, for which he was convicted by a Panchkula court in August last year.

In August this year, his bail application in the castration case was rejected by a court in Panchkula after which he had challenged the order and moved an application before a special CBI judge, who accepted his bail plea Friday.

Earlier, the Panchkula CBI court had framed charges including those pertaining to voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means, cheating and criminal intimidation against Ram Rahim Singh.

Besides, charges pertaining to the criminal conspiracy were also framed against the 51-year-old Dera chief and two others.

Earlier this year, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against Ram Rahim Singh and two doctors for alleged forcible castration of 400 followers of the sect.

Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20-year jail term after being convicted in two rape cases over a year ago, had been charged along with doctors Pankaj Garg and M P Singh.

It had been alleged that they castrated the men at the Sirsa-based Dera telling the victims that it would lead to the realisation of god through the dera chief. The chargesheet had been filed in a special court in Panchkula.

The agency had registered the case of alleged criminal conspiracy for voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means among other charges under the Indian Penal Code against Ram Rahim Singh and others in 2015.

The probe was handed over to the agency by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the plea of a dera follower.