Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20-year sentence for raping two female followers, has once again been granted parole. The self-styled godman, lodged at Sunaria Jail in Haryana’s Rohtak, will be released for 21 days.
This will be Ram Rahim’s 17th release from prison since his conviction in 2017.
According to officials, he has been permitted to leave the jail and travel to the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa, where he is expected to arrive shortly after his release.
Earlier, on May 26, Ram Rahim was granted a 30-day parole, which he spent at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters.
He was also granted 40-day paroles in January this year and August 2025. Before that, he received a 21-day furlough in April 2025 and a 30-day parole in January 2025, ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections, along with several other paroles and furloughs.
The Dera Sacha Sauda has a significant following in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and several other states.
In Haryana, the sect has considerable influence in districts including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
Meanwhile, in March, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
His acquittal came seven years after a special CBI court had convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The verdict was pronounced by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal while hearing appeals challenging the 2019 conviction. The Bench, however, dismissed the appeals filed by two other accused.
The acquittal followed the Bench’s scrutiny of the evidence in the case, including controversy surrounding the bullets allegedly used in the crime.
A special CBI court in Haryana’s Panchkula had convicted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in 2019 for the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Chhatrapati.
Three of the sect chief’s close aides, Krishan Lal, Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh, were also convicted in the case.
Chhatrapati was shot in October 2002 and later succumbed to his injuries.
The CBI registered the case on November 10, 2003, following directions from the High Court. It subsequently took over the investigation from the case originally registered at a police station in Sirsa.
