Convicted rapist Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 40-day parole yet again. The Dera Sacha Sauda chief is serving a 20-year jail term for the rape of two of his disciples. He is currently jailed in the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak, PTI reported.
Ram Rahim was granted a 40-day parole in August last year. The self-styled Godman was convicted in 2017. He, along with three others, has also been found guilty of the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago, for which he was sentenced in 2019.
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Ram Rahim's slew of furloughs
Apart from the parole granted in August last year, he was given a 21-day furlough in April and a 30-day parole in January, ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections. He was also granted a 20-day parole on October 1, 2024, just days before the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections.
Ram Rahim was granted a 21-day parole in August 2024. He was also let out for three weeks in February 2022, just two weeks before the commencement of the Punjab Assembly polls. Counting in his latest parole, Singh has been furloughed 15 times since his conviction in 2017.
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The Dera's strong presence
On many of the 13 earlier occasions when Singh was released from jail, he stayed at the Dera's ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Bagpat district. The Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda has a large number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and other states. In Haryana, the sect has a strong presence in districts such as Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, and Hisar.
