- Wednesday, October 02, 2024
The Dera chief will be staying in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, during the parole period. The Election Commission has warned him against indulging in any political activity
By: Shajil Kumar
DERA SACHA SAUDA leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a convicted rapist, walked out of the jail once again after the Haryana government on Tuesday granted 20-day parole.
As the parole comes days ahead of the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections, the Election Commission has set stringent terms.
They include a ban on his entry in Haryana, delivering public speeches and indulging in political activity.
In a letter to Haryana Jail Department’s additional chief secretary, the state chief electoral officer referred to the September 30 letter by the administration which conveyed the “emergency and compelling reasons” furnished by the convict while seeking a 20-day parole.
The CEO said, “In view of the above mentioned letters, the state government may consider the matter regarding grant of parole (20 days) to convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh confined in district jail, Rohtak, subject to the correctness of the facts regarding emergency and compelling reasons as mentioned in your letter dated September 30.”
The parole will be cancelled if indulges in any election-related activity, the CEO warned.
The results of Haryana assembly elections would be out on October 8.
The state administration has sought the EC’s permission as the Model Code of Conduct is in place.
The Dera chief had sought to stay in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, during the parole period. In August this year, Singh was granted a 21-day furlough.
Some of his paroles and furloughs in the past have coincided with polls in Punjab, Haryana and neighbouring states.
He was granted three weeks’ furlough from February 7, 2022, barely two weeks before the Punjab Assembly polls.
Singh was sentenced in 2017 and is serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his disciples.
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.
A special CBI court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case. Singh had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused. (PTI)
