Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh gets 50-day parole

Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted 50-day parole, official sources said on Friday.

The parole comes two months after the Sirsa-headquartered sect chief had walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak district on November 21 last year after he was granted a 21-day furlough -- his third temporary release from jail in 2023.

During his temporary release period, Singh will go to the Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples.

The Dera chief had walked out of the Sunaria jail on a 30-day parole on July 30, 2023, while he was granted a 40-day parole in January last year as well.

In October 2022 too, he was granted a 40-day parole.

Before that, he had come out of prison on a month-long parole in June 2022. Besides, he was granted a three-week furlough on February 7, 2022.

In 2021, the Dera chief, along with four others, was also convicted for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager.

The Dera chief and three others were convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.