New Delhi: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim SIngh who is serving a jail term after being convicted in rape and murder cases has said that Honeypreet has now been as “Ruhani Didi,” as reported by the news agency ANI.
He said that this was done because everyone calls her “didi” which causes confusion. “Our daughter is called Honeypreet. Since everyone calls her 'didi', it causes confusion as everyone is 'didi'. So we have now named her 'Ruhani Didi' and modernised it to easy to pronounce, 'Ruh Di', news agency ANI quoted Ram Rahim as saying.
Earlier in October, Rahim was released from Sunaria jail on 40-day parole. He reached Baghpat under a security cover. The Dera chief's family had submitted an application to the jail authorities seeking month-long parole for him. Rahim was granted parole for a month on June 17.
Singh has been incarcerated, since 2017, in Haryana's Sunaria jail where he is serving a 20-year-term for raping two women disciples at his ashram's headquarters in Sirsa.
In February, the Dera chief was granted three weeks' furlough. While parole means the release of a prisoner either temporarily for a special purpose or completely before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behaviour, a furlough is a short-term temporary release of convicts from jail.
He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017 for raping two women followers. While, on October 8, 2021, the court convicted Rahim and four others in connection with former Dera manager Ranjit Singh's murder case. Ranjit Singh was murdered in 2002 on the premises of Dera Sacha Sauda.
CBI had registered the case on the orders passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in the year 2003 and taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Police Station Sadar in Kurukshetra. It was alleged that Ranjit Singh resident of Village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of District Kurukshetra in Haryana.
After a thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in the year 2007 against six accused and charges were framed in the year 2008. During the pendency of the trial, one accused expired on October 10, 2020, and trial proceedings were abated against him.
The court had held the said accused guilty and convicted them on October 8, 2021. On July 5, Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the writ petition that was filed by some people alleging the replacement of Ram Rahim with a dummy person.
(With ANI Inputs)