Gurugram: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s release on a 21-day furlough Tuesday has raised eyebrows because of its timing, days before Rajasthan — where his controversial cult has significant influence — goes to the polls.
This is the fifth time since February 2022 that Ram Rahim — in jail since 2017 for rape and murder — has come out of prison on parole/furlough around election time.
Ram Rahim has been serving a 20-year sentence for the rape of his female disciples since 25 August 2017, and two life sentences — since January 2019 and October 2021 — for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, respectively.
He is lodged at Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail. On Tuesday, after receiving furlough, he left for his ashram in Barnawa (Uttar Pradesh).
The Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda has had a long relationship with politics under Ram Rahim, with the organisation known to have offered support to both the Congress and the BJP at different times.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh hails from Gurusar Modia village of Ganganagar district in Rajasthan, where he has another ashram. The state votes on 25 November.
While the Haryana jail minister denied Ram Rahim’s furlough had anything to do with the elections, noting that the campaign for Rajasthan ends Thursday, Chhatrapati’s son Anshul said the “state political class, irrespective of political affiliations, has been standing with Ram Rahim ever since my father was shot dead in 2002”.
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‘Not linked to elections’
Ram Chander Chhatrapati, editor of the evening daily Poora Sach, was shot outside his Sirsa residence on 24 October 2002.
He was attacked at Ram Rahim’s instance for publishing a letter written by the Dera’s female disciples to the President of India, accusing the cult chief of rape.
Chhatrapati passed away on 21 November 2002. Tuesday marked the 22nd anniversary of his death.
Speaking to ThePrint about his father’s killing, Anshul said “no effort was made by the Haryana Police to investigate the case against him”.
“If our family and the families of the other victims could get justice, it was only because of the spectacular fairness shown by our judicial system,” he added.
Anshul said it was not the first time that Ram Rahim had been released on parole or furlough ahead of polls.
“As far as the present BJP government led by Manohar Lal Khattar is concerned, it has been standing behind the person against whom heinous charges of rape and murder have been proved,” he added.
He alleged the present government passed the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 2022, to suit Ram Rahim “because now he doesn’t even have to cite a reason for seeking parole or furlough, which was earlier mandatory”.
Both parole and furlough offer prisoners short-term release. While the latter can be claimed without any reason, the law in question allowed parole without reason too.
Haryana Minister for Jails and Energy Ranjit Singh said Ram Rahim’s release had nothing to do with elections, adding that parole and furlough are a prisoner’s statutory rights and he can apply for that at a time of his choice.
He denied the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 2022, was meant in any way to help Ram Rahim.
“Under the jail manual, every prisoner is entitled to 70 days of parole per year. The prisoner can apply for parole at the time of his choice with a rider that the parole can’t be allowed more than twice in a year,” he added.
“So, all the prisoner has to do is divide the parole period into not more than two stints. Similarly, the prisoner is allowed 21 days of furlough in a year. The jail superintendent makes a recommendation for parole or furlough and it is approved by the deputy commissioner if the prisoner is serving a sentence of less than seven years and it is approved by the divisional commissioner if the sentence is more than 10 years.”
The matter, he said “is entirely between the jail superintendent and the divisional commissioner, and the state government is nowhere in the picture”.
On a question about his release coinciding with the elections, Ranjit Singh said the polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — also held this month — are already over and the campaigning for Rajasthan is ending Thursday.
Hence, the allegation that Ram Rahim’s release coincides with the elections is absolutely incorrect, he said.
The minister said the timing of filing an application for parole or furlough is chosen by the prisoner, and the government doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Due to a “lack of knowledge”, he added, “certain people are comparing the delays in the grant of bail to some individuals arrested in different cases with frequent releases of Ram Rahim”.
“These are two entirely different issues. Bail to an undertrial prisoner is to be granted by the sessions court or the higher courts based on the merit of their cases while parole and furlough are to be granted by the deputy commissioner or the divisional commissioner, as the case may be, on the recommendation of the jail superintendent on the application of a convict in the exercise of his right,” the minister added.
Dera Sacha Sauda & politics
The Dera Sacha Sauda is believed to have started taking an interest in politics in the region ever since Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh took over the reins from his predecessor Shah Satnam Singh in 1990, according to an analyst who didn’t wish to be named.
Ram Rahim’s political role sparked a controversy in the 2007 assembly elections in Punjab when the Dera asked its followers to vote collectively for the Congress.
The Shiromani Akali Dal won the polls, but the party lost most of the seats in Punjab’s Malwa region, where Ram Rahim had considerable clout.
The same year, he was booked by Punjab Police in a case of blasphemy for allegedly dressing as Guru Gobind Singh during a congregation at Salabatpura in Punjab.
Since then, the Dera has become more guarded vis-a-vis its political role, dabbling in it not directly but through a ‘political affairs wing’.
In the 2014 assembly polls in Haryana, the Dera had openly supported the BJP, and the party went on to form a government of its own in the state for the first time.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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