Rape and murder convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, early on Tuesday morning was released from Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana, on a 40-day parole, marking his 14th temporary release since his 2017 conviction. This follows a 21-day furlough in April 2025, a 30-day parole in January 2025, and a 20-day parole in October 2024, just before the Haryana Assembly elections. Since becoming eligible for parole in October 2020, Ram Rahim has been released 14 times, spending over 326 days outside jail. His releases include a one-day parole in October 2020, a 12-hour parole in May 2021, and multiple paroles in 2022 (February, June, October), 2023 (January, July, November), 2024 (January, August, October), and 2025 (January, April, August).
During this parole, Ram Rahim, as instructed by court, will stay at his Sirsa ashram, a rare allowance since his conviction, as he previously stayed at the Dera’s Baghpat ashram in Uttar Pradesh. The timing of his releases, often aligning with elections like the Haryana Assembly polls in October 2024 or Delhi’s in February 2025, has fuelled accusations of political motives, given his large following in Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
In August 2017, Ram Rahim was convicted of raping two female disciples, sentencing him to 20 years. In January 2019, he received a life sentence for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. In October 2021, he was convicted for the murder of Dera manager Ranjit Singh, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in May 2024, a decision now under appeal in the Supreme Court.
Critics, including Anshul Chhatrapati, son of the slain journalist, argue these frequent paroles, often before elections, undermine justice and suggest political favouritism. Interestingly, almost as a pattern, even the rape and murder convicts from the Bilkis Bank case were granted remission right ahead of Gujarat elections in 2022. Bilkis Bank was raped and her family members were butchered by these convicts during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Yet they were granted remission, allowing them to be out during the state elections. They were also seen participating inn political activities along with BJP leaders in Gujarat.
