Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, convicted of rape and murder, has been granted a 40-day parole, marking the 15th time he has been released since his conviction in 2017.
On many of the 13 occasions in the past, when Singh was out of jail, he remained at the Dera's ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Bagpat district.
Multiple terror attacks in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during Ramazan have resulted in the deaths of security personnel, while security forces in Balochistan have killed several rebels in response.
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Harpinder alias Middu, a resident of Naushehra Pannuan in Punjab's Tarn Taran district, was injured in an exchange of fire in Lalru and later succumbed to injuries in hospital, the police said.
Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough.
Navjot Kaur Sidhu claims support within the Congress party after being suspended for her controversial remarks. She also accuses Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa of corruption and links to smugglers.
Six terrorists were killed after a suicide attack and subsequent gun battle at a police training center in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Seven police personnel also died in the attack.
The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states.
This comes months after Singh walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak after being granted a 21-day furlough in April.
During his temporary release period, Singh will go to the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat, they further said.
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's former jailer Sunil Sangwan has won the Charkhi Dadri seat in Haryana as Bharatiya Janata Party candidate.
The Dera chief has sought to stay in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, during the parole period, if granted.
Floodwaters from the Ravi River have inundated the Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan, including Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, stranding over 100 people. Rescue operations are underway as thousands are evacuated from flooded areas.
The Haryana government on Tuesday granted 20-day parole to the sect chief, official sources said.
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.
Former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, who was also a follower of the sect, was shot dead in 2002.
A woman was raped in front of her husband in Shahpur on the outskirts of Patna, police said on Thursday.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji was hearing a petition of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee which had challenged the grant of temporary release to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief.
He has been incarcerated since 2017 in Haryana's Sunaria jail where he is serving a 20-year term for raping two women disciples at his ashram's headquarters in Sirsa.
According to a police official from Rohtak, Singh returned to Sunaria jail late afternoon.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear a plea by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) challenging the temporary release of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The court noted that Singh's counsel objected to the maintainability of the PIL before the high court, which was disposed of on the ground that it was filed against a single person, Singh. The bench said it was not inclined to consider the present petition. Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples.
The move comes just ahead of the Adampur bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on November 3.
The Sirsa-headquartered sect chief, who is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples, walked out of the Sunaria prison in Haryana's Rohtak on Saturday after being granted a 40-day parole and reached Barnawa Ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.
The 62-year-old former deputy chief minister was first elected the party president in 2008. His re-election at the outfit's general delegate session in Amritsar comes barely four months after he quit after he was declared 'tankhaiya' (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht for "mistakes" committed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its government from 2007 to 2017.
Pronouncing 'tankhah' (religious punishment) for Sukhbir Singh Badal and other leaders for the 'mistakes' committed by the Shiromani Akali Dal government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017, the Sikh clergy at the Akal Takht on Monday directed the senior Akali leader to perform as a 'sewadar', and wash dishes and clean shoes at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The latest parole to the Dera chief, who is serving a 20-year jail term for raping his two disciples, comes three months after he was granted a similar parole.
The radical preacher has been on the run since a police crackdown on his outfit Waris Punjab De on March 18. He has, however, appeared in two purported videos and an audio clip released on social media in the past few days.
Haryana Jail Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala also said, "Gurmeet Ram Rahim is like every other prisoner here and he also has his fundamental rights."
Was Ram Rahim's release on parole for the 10th time since his conviction in 2017 timed to coincide with the Haryana assembly elections? It does seem so when one considers he has been released mostly when there was an election in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Listing the times that Ram Rahim has been out on parole.
The sect chief is serving a 20-year term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the Dera is headquartered.
The move came days after the Supreme Court vacated the stay imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the trial in three sacrilege cases.
The sect chief said this was only a media speculation, and that he is, was, and will continue to head the sect, which has a large number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand. The bypolls, however, will not have any direct impact on the respective legislative assemblies. The results will be declared on November 23. In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad. This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically-crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections. In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats - Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala. The bypolls were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
The sect chief is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the dera is headquartered.
Badal's resignation came days after he urged the Akal Takht Jathedar to pronounce his punishment for religious misconduct charges, saying more than two months have passed since he was declared 'tankhaiya' (guilty of religious misconduct).
Three suspected shooters were nabbed in Punjab's Patiala district early on Friday in connection with the killing of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower a day ago, the police said.
Over 70 Indian Hindu pilgrims returned home on Wednesday after performing religious rituals at the sacred Katas Raj temples in Pakistan's Punjab province.
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