Chandigarh A plea seeking parole for controversial Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving jail sentence for raping two of his disciples and in a murder case, was withdrawn from Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday.
The plea was filed by his wife, Harjeet Kaur, who had sought his release for three weeks to take care of his 85-year-old ailing mother Naseeb Kaur.
“In case opinion by medical experts is that the mother of the husband of the petitioner is critically ill then the withdrawal of the case today would not be an impediment in consideration of request in accordance with law,” the bench of justice RN Raina said while allowing Kaur to withdraw the petition.
Earlier, the court verbally observed that Ram Rahim himself could have filed the plea. The court reportedly rapped the petitioner saying Ram Rahim’s mother should be treated at the hospital run by his sect. It also said that his family was already living with his mother to take care of her.
The parole was sought on the grounds that the convict had earned “good conduct remission reports”.
{{/usCountry}}The parole was sought on the grounds that the convict had earned “good conduct remission reports”.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, the authorities of Rohtak’s Sunaria jail where Ram Rahim is serving his sentence, had refused to grant him parole to meet his ailing mother. The decision not to grant parole was taken by jail superintendent Sunil Sangwan on August 9 after Justice Kuldip Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the state to take a decision on the representation by Ram Rahim’s wife.
She moved the parole plea saying that Ram Rahim’s mother was suffering from heart disease and she was not taking treatment in the absence of her son.
In June Ram Rahim, 51, had withdrawn his parole plea sought for 42 days for tending to the sprawling fields in his sect’s headquarters in Sirsa town. Before that the high court had in May rejected Ram Rahim’s parole plea for attending the wedding ceremony of his foster daughter.
Ram Rahim is serving two jail terms of ten years each for alleged rapes of women disciples at the dera premises in 2002. He is also serving life imprisonment in the murder case of Ram Chandra Chatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist, murdered in 2002.
HC judge recuses from hearing Honeypreet’s bail plea
A Punjab and Haryana high court judge has recused himself from hearing a bail plea filed by Honeypreet, the adopted daughter of convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
She is in jail in connection with violence that broke out in Panchkula in Haryana on August 25, 2017, following the conviction of the Dera chief.
The case will now be put up before the chief justice so that the matter can be assigned to another bench.
Her counsel said she had no role in the violence and her name was subsequently added to the first information report (FIR). IANS