Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of jail once again on Tuesday after getting a 30-day parole, reported The Indian Express. This is the 16th time that Singh has been released from prison since he was convicted in a rape case in August 2017.
During his parole, he will stay at the headquarters of his organisation in Sirsa district. Singh will not be permitted to gather his followers at his dera, but has been allowed to address them virtually.
This is the fifth time since his conviction that Singh has been allowed to visit the place. At other times when he has been released on parole or furlough, he stayed at his organisation’s ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat.
Singh was last released from prison on January 5 on a 40-day parole. Before that, he was granted a 40-day parole on August 5 to celebrate his birthday on August 15.
He was also released on furlough in April 2025 for 21 days and was granted a 30-day parole in January 2025, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.
While a furlough can be given without any specific reason after a prisoner has served a stipulated period of time in prison, parole is based on an urgent demand or need.
Singh was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera’s Sirsa headquarters.
In 2021, he and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of a former manager of his sect. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the murder case in May 2024.
In February 2024, the High Court told the Haryana government that Singh could not be granted parole without its permission. This came a month after Singh was released for 50 days, which was his seventh parole in 24 months and ninth in four years.
In August 2024, the High Court said that the application for temporary release filed by Singh will be decided by competent authorities as per the provisions of the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act without “favouritism or arbitrariness”.
The bench left the decision on Singh’s application for furlough to the Haryana Prisons Department.
With the latest parole, the dera chief has exhausted his 10-week parole entitlement for this calendar year under the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act, Hindustan Times reported.
The law allows prisoners a total of 10 weeks of parole in a calendar year, which can be taken in two parts, along with up to three weeks of furlough that must be availed in a single stretch.
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