Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough.
The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a number of followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states.
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.
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.
A special CBI court in Panchkula on Friday convicted Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh in 2002.
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.
According to a police official from Rohtak, Singh returned to Sunaria jail late afternoon.
said the CBI verdict has been challenged on several grounds. "One of the grounds was that there was a delay of more than six years in recording the statements of the women (victims) by the CBI after the incident," the defence counsel 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.
The Haryana government on Tuesday granted 20-day parole to the sect chief, official sources said.
The sect chief is serving a 20-year term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the Dera is headquartered.
This comes months after Singh walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak after being granted a 21-day furlough in April.
"He withdrew his parole application on Monday," a senior official of Haryana Prisons Department said, refusing to divulge further details.
The Dera chief has sought to stay in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, during the parole period, if granted.
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.
Ram Rahim did not talk with anyone and was seen roaming in the cell.
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 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.
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.
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.
Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples.
Ahead of the pronouncement of the sentence, police have left nothing to chance and have taken important functionaries of the sect, who could gather followers, into preventive custody.
Haryana and Punjab remained on high alert with officials warning that violent miscreants will be shot at sight.
Efforts continued to trace Dera chief's adopted daughter Honeypreet Insan.
The situation in Sirsa remained tense but under control, according to police.
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.
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been given Z-plus security cover during his 21-day release on furlough from a Haryana jail where he has been serving a sentence, officials said on Tuesday." a recent communication from a senior Haryana police official to the Rohtak Range commissioner said.
The move comes just ahead of the Adampur bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on November 3.
Vineet Kumar had changed several hard disks before the search operation at its headquarters in Sirsa.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husband Robert Vadra on Tuesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was behind Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal being out of jail to campaign in the Haryana polls with an aim of denting the Congress' chances.
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 court of judicial magistrate first class Rahul Garg also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on Prithi Singh a resident of Baghapurana and Amardeep Singh and Mithu Singh, both residents of Malke village.
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.
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.
The CBI court is hearing the cases of murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
Honeypreet is the only woman in the 'wanted' list.
The high court asked the state government to make arrangements for security and safe transport by air of the judicial officer and two staff members.
The special court had convicted them on Friday in the murder case of a Dera manager, Ranjit Singh.
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