Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim gets 21-day furlough again: Report

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the chief of Sirsa's Dera Sachcha Sauda, has been granted a 21-day furlough again. This will be the second time this year that he was granted a break from his jail sentence. During the time he would be out of jail, the rape-convict godman would stay in his Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

The Sirsa-headquartered Dera sect chief was granted the temporary release days after the Punjab and Haryana high court disposed of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's (SGPC) petition against Singh's temporary release.

On August 9, the Punjab and Haryana high court observed that his petition for a temporary release should be decided by the competent authority without any "arbitrariness or favouritism".

Also read: Decide Ram Rahim’s paroles without ‘favouritism or discrimination’: HC to Haryana

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan moved the court in June seeking release for 21 days.

In February this year, the high court had told the Haryana government to not grant him further parole without its permission. This was after he was granted a 50-day parole on January 19.

Also read: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, 4 others acquitted in murder case by high court

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years for raping his two disciples. He is serving his sentence in the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak.

He has been in jail since 2017.

Also read: Dera chief Ram Rahim seeks 21-day furlough again

The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago. In May, the high court acquitted Singh and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh, citing "tainted and sketchy" investigations in the matter.

The Dera chief's stay in jail has been peppered with several furloughs.

With inputs from PTI