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In June 2019, Ram Rahim Singh had withdrawn his parole plea after the state BJP government was cornered by opposition parties for favouring the self-styled godman, who sought parole for 42 days to tend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.
On April 3, two persons from Pathankot, driver, Surinder Singh and conductor, Dheeraj Dutta were shot and injured by militants in Litter village of the same district.
Three persons were arrested for allegedly running a fake call centre that used to cheat people on the pretext of increasing the limit of their credit cards, an official said on Wednesday. The accused cyber fraudsters were identified as Prateek (25), Kuldeep (26) and Sourav (27)
In a massive show of strength, the party's two Chief Ministers -- Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi and Bhagwant Mann of Punjab -- held a roadshow with the former pleading with the public saying, "AAP will uproot corruption from Himachal Pradesh too, if it comes to power".
The official said that the trio had violated provisions of section 8 of the NDPS act, and had committed offence punishable under section 21, section 23 and section 29 of NDPS act.
Emphasising the need of immediate direct air link between Chandigarh and London, Mann apprised Rowett that the Chandigarh International Airport caters to the growing demand of the people of neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chandigarh.
The family members of the farmers, mowed down by a car belonging to Mishra, in Lakhimpur Kheri had moved the top court challenging bail granted to him. He is the son of Union Minister and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra. The victims' families have claimed that the state has not filed an appeal opposing bail granted to Mishra.
