Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh granted 1-month parole

According to the report, Singh is likely to go to the Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was on Friday allowed a month-long parole, multiple news agencies reported. He had been lodged in a jail in Rohtak, Haryana since 2017 after being convicted for the rape of two followers. "Singh has been granted one-month parole and he came out of prison on Friday," PTI quoted a senior Rohtak jail official.

According to the report, Singh is likely to go to the Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

In February, the Dera chief was granted furlough from February 7 to 20. During this period, he was not allowed to visit anyone except for family members. During this time, he was given Z-plus security cover during his 21-day release. The high-category security cover was given due to a high-level threat to his life from 'pro-Khalistan' elements.

Before this as well, he had been given emergency paroles - from sunrise to sunset - multiple times to meet his ailing mother.

The Dera chief is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples at his ashram in Sirsa in Haryana, where the organisation's headquarter is situated. In 2017, he was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula. He was lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail.

He was last year also convicted along with four others for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager, in 2002. In 2019, the Dera chief and three others were also convicted for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago. He had been held guilty for hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused for these killings.