Gurmeet Ram Rahim Reaches Dera Sacha Sauda Barnawa Ashram After Getting 21-Day Furlough

Following his temporary release, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh went to the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Source : PTI

Ram Rahim News: Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough, official sources said on Tuesday. Following his temporary release, Singh went to the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

The news agency ANI shared visuals from outside Dera Sacha Sauda Barnawa Ashram in Baghpat.

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Visuals from outside Dera Sacha Sauda Barnawa Ashram in Baghpat.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been released from Sunaria prison in Rohtak (Haryana) on a 21-day furlough, as per his lawyer.

He is a convict in a rape case. pic.twitter.com/P9FOTgVC4q

— ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2024

Rakam Singh, Sevadar at Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram said, "He has arrived at Barnawa Ashram for the 7th time on a 21-day furlough. He will be here for 21 days...It is his birthday on 15th August, it will be celebrated through plantations across the country and the world..."

#WATCH | Rakam Singh, Sevadar at Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram says, "He has arrived at Barnawa Ashram for the 7th time on a 21-day furlough. He will be here for 21 days...It is his birthday on 15th August, it will be celebrated through plantations across the country and the world..." https://t.co/A0jb3tGExZ pic.twitter.com/YgOmRXIeIN

— ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2024

The Sirsa-headquartered Dera sect chief was granted the temporary release days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court disposed of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's (SGPC) petition against Singh's temporary release.

On August 9, the high court observed that a plea for temporary release by the Dera chief should be considered by the competent authority without any "arbitrariness or favouritism". In June, Singh moved the high court and sought directions to grant him a 21-day furlough.

On February 29, the high court directed the Haryana government not to grant further parole to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief without its permission. He had been granted a 50-day parole on January 19.

Singh is serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his disciples and is lodged in the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak district. He was sentenced in 2017. The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.

In May, the high court acquitted Singh and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh, citing "tainted and sketchy" investigations in the matter. A special CBI court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case. Singh had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.