Dera chief walks out of prison on 20-day parole ahead of Oct 5 Haryana polls
The Congress hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for granting parole and asked the Election Commission of India to take cognisance of the matter
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was in 2017 convicted of raping two of his disciples, on Wednesday walked out of prison a day after he was granted 20-day parole amid concerns that he may influence his followers ahead of the October 5 Haryana elections.
He has been released on parole or furlough 11 times since his sentencing. Singh was last granted a 21-day furlough on August 13. Parole is granted in the event of an exigency while furlough is a general break from imprisonment. The temporary releases of Singh, who retained his popularity despite the convictions, have coincided with polls.
The Rohtak divisional commissioner on Tuesday issued the order for Singh’s temporary release a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) said the authorities may decide on his request subject to the correctness of facts mentioned in his plea and satisfying other conditions concerning the code of conduct in force due to the elections.
The state government ordered Singh to stay at the Dera’s ashram at Baghpat in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Singh has been barred from making any public speeches. Authorities said a strict watch would be kept on his movements. Singh was asked to furnish a personal bond and two sureties of ₹3 lakh each for “faithful observance of the conditions”.
The Congress hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for granting parole. It asked the ECI to take cognisance of the matter and stop the relief during the polls. “...the BJP has to take help of a murder and rape convict in the election...[it] is a blot on the party’s face,” Congress leader Subhash Batra said.
Haryana Congress legal cell chairman KC Bhatia said he has written to the ECI against the relief. “Ram Rahim can influence voters during the elections. This is not an occasion to grant him parole,” he said.
The BJP maintained the decision to grant parole was purely an administrative matter.
Singh was sentenced to a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples at the Dera premises in Sirsa in 2002. He was awarded life terms in 2019 and 2021 for conspiring the murder of a journalist and a Dera follower.