ROHTAK/AMRITSAR: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail, was granted a month’s regular parole on Friday. He will spend 30 days at his dera in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has slammed the decision and said it shows the double standards of the Haryana government to grant parole to the Dera chief.
Gurmeet, who was serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, was in January 2019 also sentenced to life imprisonment, along with three others, for the murder of a journalist.
Sources said the Dera chief had applied for 40 days’ parole. Earlier, he was released on a 21-day furlough, from February 7 to 27 this year, to meet his family members in Gurgaon.
Sources said security clearance was sought from the UP government after Gurmeet applied for parole. After receiving its “no objection”, the Haryana government permitted parole. A video showing Gurmeet appealing to his followers to not throng his Baghpat ashram has gone viral on social media.
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said, “On the one hand, the government is not releasing Sikh prisoners despite them having completed their jail sentences, and on the other hand Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is a convict in heinous crimes of rape and murder, is released from jail time and again.”
