Chandigarh, June 17 (IANS) In less than five months of granting a 21-day furlough, self-styled jailed godman and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was on Friday granted parole for a month by the BJP-led Haryana government.
He is currently serving a life term for the murder of his manager in 2002 and was also convicted for the rape of two women in 2017.
He's lodged in Haryana's Sunaria jail since 2017 after being convicted in the rape and murder cases. He has a large number of followers in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, he was released from the jail four times for various reasons, including his plea to meet the ailing mother. The parole has been granted for the first time since his conviction.
Justifying the decision, an official said Ram Rahim has been granted parole as per the jail manual.
He will stay in Barnawa in Bagpath, the first ashram established in Uttar Pradesh in 1980, during parole.
According to an official, the dera chief was provided Z-plus security cover during his parole owing to the "high threat perception" to his life from "pro-Khalistan" groups.
Earlier just ahead of the Punjab polls, Ram Rahim, who is lodged at the high-security Sunaria jail in Rohtak, 250 kms from state capital Chandigarh, was granted furlough on February 7 to meet his family in Gurugram.
In June 2019, Ram Rahim Singh had withdrawn his parole plea after the state BJP government was cornered by opposition parties for favouring the self-styled godman, who sought parole for 42 days to tend to his agricultural fields at his sect's headquarters in Sirsa town.
Also, the high court had rejected his parole plea for attending the wedding ceremony of his foster daughter.
Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in jail in August 2017 for raping two women.
A special CBI court in Panchkula this January 2019 also sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati over 16 years ago.
His conviction on August 25, 2017, had led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa, leaving 41 people dead and over 260 injured.
Ram Rahim was patronised by political leaders and parties in Punjab and Haryana for nearly two decades due to his ability to influence the votes of his followers.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday urged the national governments of India and Pakistan to simplify the procedure for obtaining permission to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib.
The Chief Minister said in line with the scheme, eye camps would be organised throughout the state where the eye sight of the people would be thoroughly checked and those found suffering from the cataract problem would be operated upon after a period of 15 days.
A Delhi court on Thursday directed Delhi Police to file an Action Taken Report (ATR) on a petition seeking an FIR against Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for his alleged controversial remarks against the protesting farmers.
The Uttar Pradesh government has given a six months' extension to the special investigation team (SIT) probing the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The SIT had sought extension and the state government has given time to the SIT to complete the investigation and make arrests by May 2022.
This comes just days after the COP26 climate summit, where India pledged to cut emissions to net zero by 2070, reduce carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030, and raise the share of renewables in the energy mix to 50 per cent, among others, before staging a last-minute climbdown opposing a commitment to "phase out" coal.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, a former judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, to monitor the Lakhimpur Kheri violence probe and to ensure fairness and independence in the investigation.
