NEW DELHI: Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been given 20-day parole ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls.
Haryana authorities have granted 20-day parole to Ram Rahim Singh, official sources told news agency PTI on Tuesday.
This comes a day after Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Haryana made it clear that the state government may consider Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s request for a temporary release from jail on emergency parole.
“After receiving a report from the state authorities, I have recommended that the department may consider him for release subject to the correctness of the circumstances he (Dera Chief) has mentioned in his request for emergency parole and on imposition of conditions for such release,” Pankaj Aggarwal, CEO Haryana told TOI.
Earlier, the Haryana Congress wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Ram Rahim’s temporary parole, expressing apprehension that he may influence the Haryana voters.
On Saturday, the CEO had asked the authorities to explain the “compelling” circumstances under which the temporary release of the DSS chief for 20 days is needed.
The explanation was sought by the CEO after jail authorities in Haryana had sought CEO’s approval in view of imposition of model code of conduct due to state assembly polls scheduled to be held on October 5.
In March this year, the Punjab and Haryana high court had directed the Haryana government “not to consider” any application for parole by Ram Rahim “without permission of this court”.
In August this year, Singh was granted a 21-day furlough.
At that time, Singh, who is lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail, during his temporary release period, had sought to stay at the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat.
Notably, in the past some of his paroles and furloughs have coincided with polls in Punjab and 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.