Rape convict Dera chief Gurmeet gets 3-week furlough again

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is convicted in a rape case got furlough for three weeks on Monday, an official statement said.

Earlier in February, the Dera chief was also granted three weeks' furlough.

He has been incarcerated since 2017 in Haryana's Sunaria jail where he is serving a 20-year term for raping two women disciples at his ashram's headquarters in Sirsa.

Furlough is a type of leave from the prison.

The period is for 14 days in a year but the extension may be granted citing certain reasons after an application is submitted to the prison superintendent.

Earlier Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula in August 2017 for raping two women followers.

CBI had registered the case on the orders passed by the high court of Punjab and Haryana in 2003 and taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Police Station Sadar in Kurukshetra.

It was alleged that Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of district Kurukshetra in Haryana.

After a thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in 2007 against six accused and charges were framed in 2008 while, on October 8, 2021, the court convicted Rahim and four others in connection with former Dera manager Ranjit Singh's murder case.