Rohtak, Jan 4 (IANS) Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, who is currently lodged in Sunaria Jail in Haryana's Rohtak serving sentences for raping two female followers and murdering a journalist, has once again been granted a 40-day parole.
This is the latest in a series of temporary releases for Ram Rahim. He was granted a 40-day parole in August last year, followed by a 30-day parole in January, a 21-day furlough in April, and several other releases around the time of the Delhi Assembly elections.
With the latest 40-day parole, Ram Rahim will now be stepping out of jail for the 15th time since his conviction.
During his previous paroles, including the 21-day and 40-day releases, Ram Rahim had stayed at the Sirsa Dera (ashram). This time as well, he is expected to reside at the Sirsa Dera after being released on parole.
A CBI court had sentenced Ram Rahim to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in each of the two rape cases involving his female followers, amounting to a total sentence of 20 years.
Subsequently, the CBI court also convicted and sentenced him in the murder case of journalist Chhatrapati, as well as in the murder of Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
In 2019, Ram Rahim, along with three others, was convicted for the murder of journalist Chhatrapati, a crime that had taken place more than 16 years earlier.
Since his conviction in 2017, Ram Rahim has been released from prison on 14 occasions. On most of these occasions, he stayed at the Dera’s ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Bagpat district.
The Dera Sacha Sauda, which is headquartered in Sirsa, has a sizeable following across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and several other states. In Haryana, the organisation enjoys considerable influence in districts such as Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
The repeated granting of parole to Ram Rahim has drawn criticism from various quarters, with several political parties questioning the Haryana government over the matter.
Journalist Chhatrapati's son, Anshul, has also raised objections, stating that Ram Rahim is "not an ordinary prisoner but a hardened criminal" and questioning the justification behind his repeated release.
However, the Haryana government has defended its decision before the High Court, submitting an affidavit stating that Ram Rahim does not fall under the category of a hardened criminal and is considered a prisoner with good conduct.
According to jail rules, prisoners with good conduct are entitled to parole or furlough. Under the existing provisions, a prisoner can be granted up to 90 days of parole in a year, which the state government has cited while justifying the repeated paroles granted to Ram Rahim.