9 months ago
14
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh - supposed to be serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women - has been granted parole, again. Singh has been released for 50 days; this is Ram Rahim Singh's seventh parole in the past 24 months, and ninth in the last four years.
Last year alone Ram Rahim Singh - on paper behind bars in Sunaria Jail in Haryana's Rohtak district - was given parole on three occasions, adding up to 91 days.
He was released for 21 days in November, 30 days in July, and 40 days starting January 21 - to attend former Dera chief Shah Satnam Singh's birth anniversary.
Singh was pictured on that occasion "celebrating" by cutting a birthday cake with a sword. In a video that was widely shared online Rahim Singh was seen slashing the cake and declaring, "Got a chance after five years to celebrate like this... so I should cut at least five cakes. This is the first cake!"
The public display of weapons (cutting a cake with a sword falls in that category) is prohibited under the Arms Act.
In 2022 too, the BJP that is in power in Haryana had given Ram Rahim Singh parole three times.
In October he was released for 40 days, in June he was released for a month, and, in February, he was released for 21 days. He was also given parole once each in 2021 and 2020 - to visit his mother.
Ram Rahim Singh was convicted by a special CBI court in Haryana's Panchkula in August 2017 for raping two women.
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