Dera chief Gurmeet seeks 20-day parole ahead of Haryana polls

Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has sought a 20-day parole, a request which comes days ahead of the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls.

With the model code of conduct in place, the sect chief's application for parole was sent to the election department which has asked the jails department to specify the "emergent and compelling" reasons behind the request that justify the release of convicts on parole during polls, official sources said on Sunday.

The Dera chief has sought to stay in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, during the parole period, if granted.

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.

In the past, the Shiromanu Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal have questioned "repeated" paroles being given to the Dera chief, saying "justice" was not being done with 'Bandi Singhs' (Sikh prisoners), who they claim, were in jails even after completion of their sentences.

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 Central Bureau of Investigation 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.