Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20-year jail term in the Sadhvi sexual assault case, was released from Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail on Tuesday after being granted a 30-day parole by the Haryana government’s competent authority. This marks the self-styled godman’s 16th temporary release since his conviction in 2017.

Ram Rahim walked out of Sunaria Jail at around 6:34 am with limited visible security deployment during his exit. His counsel Jitendra Khurana confirmed the development and said the parole had been approved by the state authority.

According to his lawyer, the Dera chief will stay at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa during the parole period.

The latest parole has once again triggered attention around the repeated temporary releases granted to the controversial religious leader.

Ram Rahim has been lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail since August 2017 after being convicted in the Sadhvi sexual assault case. Over the years, he has received multiple paroles and furloughs. Earlier this year, he was granted a 40-day parole in January and returned to jail on February 15.

The latest parole comes months after a major legal development in one of the high-profile cases linked to the Dera chief. In March this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the murder case of journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati.

Ram Rahim had earlier been convicted by a Special CBI court in 2019 for allegedly conspiring in the killing of the Sirsa-based journalist, who had published reports critical of the Dera chief. He was sentenced to life imprisonment along with three others — Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal.

However, a division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court later acquitted him in the case.

What other cases has the Dera chief faced?

The Punjab and Haryana High Court also acquitted Ram Rahim and four others in the 2002 murder case of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

The case was linked to the killing of Ranjit Singh in Kurukshetra’s Khanpur Kolian village in July 2002. Earlier, a Special CBI court in Panchkula had sentenced the accused, including Ram Rahim, to life imprisonment in the case.

The repeated paroles granted to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief have often sparked political criticism, public debate and security concerns, especially during election periods and sensitive law-and-order situations.

With ANI inputs