Punjab, Haryana HC accepts petition against parole of Dera chief Ram Rahim

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday, accepts the petition filed against the parole given to Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape and murder convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

The petition was filed by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in the High Court.

The lawyer representing SGPC in the HC, Puran Singh Hundal told the media that they had filed the petition against the parole, and it has been accepted by the court.

"Ram Rahim has several crimes against him. If he gets parole so easily, it will give a wrong message to society. So, we had filed the petition against his parole," he said.

The HC has also sent notices to the Punjab government, the Haryana government, and the center.

The Sirsa-Dera chief who is serving a 20-year jail term for rape and murder walked out on a 40-day parole from the Sunaria Jail in Haryana's Rohtak district on Saturday and arrived at his Barnawa Ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

This is the fourth time in the last 14 months and the second time in less than three months that Ram Rahim has been granted parole. Earlier, he was released on parole for 40 days in October 2022 ahead of the Haryana panchayat election and the Adampur Assembly bypolls.

He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017 for raping two women followers. CBI had registered the case on the orders passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in 2003 and taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Police Station Sadar in Kurukshetra.

It was alleged that Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of District Kurukshetra in Haryana.

After a thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in 2007 against six accused and charges were framed in 2008 while, on October 8, 2021, the court convicted Rahim and four others in connection with former Dera manager Ranjit Singh's murder case.