Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Ram Rahim acquitted in 2002 murder case by HC

Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and four others were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 by a CBI court for their conviction in the murder of Dera manager Ranjit Singh

The Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and four others on Tuesday in a case linked to the murder of Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

"It is a big relief. Guru Ram Rahim Singh always had faith in the court. We welcome the honourable High Court today's orders," said advocate Jatinder Khurrana.

Singh was shot dead in July 2002 when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian in Kurukshetra. His was killed for his suspected role in the circulation of the letter, which made allegations of sexual exploitation against Ram Rahim, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In October 2021, a special CBI court sentenced life imprisonment to Ram Rahim and four others in the case after convicting them of Singh's murder. Ram Rahim was named as the main conspirator behind Singh's murder.

Ram Rahim, a self-styled godman, is currently lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail for 20 years for raping two of his disciples. In 2019, he was also convicted for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago.

As the news broke out in August 2017 that the sect chief was convicted of rape, violence erupted in parts of Haryana, resulting in at least 41 deaths and scores of injuries.

The allegations of rape against Ram Rahim first surfaced in an anonymous letter in April 2002, which was addressed to then Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and others. In May, the HC directed a Sirsa district judge to probe the allegations. In September 2002, the case was transferred to the CBI to investigate the allegations.

Following his conviction, the Dera chief has been at the centre of a controversy involving his repeated paroles in the rape case. In February, the Punjab and Haryana High Court asked the Haryana government not to grant further parole to Rahim Rahim without its permission.

This development followed after the Dera head was granted a 50-day parole on January 19. In November 2023, he was granted a 21-day parole. Prior to that, he had walked out of jail temporarily for a month in July and in January 2023 for 40 days.

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