Chandigarh:
Reacting to the 40-day parole granted to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was serving a 20-year prison sentence in a rape case, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said it was the right of Dera Sacha Sauda chief and that after following all procedures
He further said that if Dera Sacha Sauda’s chief has been granted parole, it should be after he has completed all procedures and he will not interfere.
“I didn’t know that Ram Rahim got paroled, but if he did, it must be after he has followed all the procedures and that is his right. I will not interfere,” Khattar said.
Earlier in the day, Ram Rahim was released on parole for 40 days.
Dera Sacha Sauda’s chief is serving a 20-year sentence for rape and murder at Rohtak’s Sunaria Prison.
“Gurmeet Ram Rahim is just like any other prisoner here and he also has his fundamental rights. After 3-5 years, a prisoner can apply for parole and it is not in our hands, the competent authority decides on the bail,” said the minister from Haryana Ranjit Singh Chautala Prison.
The paperwork for his parole was completed and he was released on Saturday. He previously served a 40-day parole in October 2022.
“The family of the Dera chief has applied to the prison authorities to grant Ram Rahim a month’s parole on his behalf, but the court and the commissioner will decide how many days he will be paroled for and where he will be during this time will last.” Haryana Prison Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala confirmed on Friday.
Notably, the Dera chief was also granted parole ahead of the Haryana panchayat election and Adampur assembly poll.
Rahim was paroled for one month on June 17.
He has been held in Haryana’s Sunaria Prison since 2017, serving a 20-year sentence for raping two female disciples at the headquarters of his ashram in Sirsa. Earlier in February, the Dera chief was given three weeks’ leave.
While parole means the release of a prisoner, either temporarily for a special purpose or completely before the expiration of a sentence, on the condition of good behavior, parole is a temporary release of convicts from prison for a short term.
He was convicted in August 2017 by a special CBI court in Panchkula for raping two female followers.
CBI had registered the case by order of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in 2003 and took over the investigation of the case previously registered at Sadar police station in Kurukshetra.
It was alleged that Ranjit Singh, a resident of Khanpur Kolian village, Kurukshetra, was killed on July 10, 2002, while working in his fields in Khanpur Kolian village of Kurukshetra District of Haryana.
After a thorough investigation, CBI filed charges against six suspects in 2007 and charges were filed in 2008, while on 8 October 2021, the court convicted Rahim and four others in connection with the murder case of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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