Haryana grants Sirsa dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim 21-day furlough

CHANDIGARH: The controversial Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who has been convicted and is undergoing imprisonment for two rape and two murder cases, was released on Monday by the Haryana government on a furlough for 21 days.
Gurmeet, according to sources, has been instructed to stay in his Gurugram farmhouse, where he will be under the complete protection of the Haryana police.He has been barred from visiting Sirsa and cannot organise any gatherings.
Lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail since August 2017, the chief of the Sirsa-based dera was released just two weeks before the assembly polls on February 20 in Punjab. His release on furlough has been criticised by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in the poll-bound state.
The dera chief was, in fact, in January named as one of the accused in the charge sheet filed by SIT, headed by IGP Surinderpal Singh Parmar, in the June 1, 2015 theft of Bir of Guru Granth Sahib from gurdwara of Burj Jawahar Wala village. The 2015 sacrilege incidents are a very emotive issue in Punjab that have affected the 2017 assembly and 2019 parliamentary polls.
The SIT headed by IGP Parmar had earlier said that, as per its investigation, it seems the conspiracy for the 2015 sacrilege was hatched at the dera headquarters in Sirsa and the dera head knew about it. The previous SIT, led by now-retired DIG Ranbir Singh Khattra, too had made the dera head an accused.
The Sirsa dera chief, who has a considerable following in over 25 assembly constituencies of Punjab's Malwa region, was linked to an incident of alleged blasphemy in 2007, in which an FIR had been filed against him. However, the Punjab police had filed a cancellation report just before the 2012 assembly elections and he was finally discharged by the court in 2014.
In January, the high court had not allowed Punjab police to take the dera chief to Punjab for investigation of sacrilege cases, observing that it might create law and order problems.
"It is a matter of fact that at the time the petitioner was convicted by the CBI court at Panchkula in August 2017, large-scale violence had erupted causing the loss of hundreds of crores of rupees to the state exchequer by causing damages to the public as well as private properties. Therefore, this court is conscious of the fact that if the petitioner is directed to appear before the trial court in Punjab, it may create a lot of law and order problems, especially in view of various recent incidents in Punjab due to forthcoming assembly elections... and the state police are already under heavy pressure," the HC had observed.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar during a media briefing at BJP office here defended the BJP-JJP government's decision to grant the dera head a three-week furlough and said that it had nothing to do with the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab. It is his legal right to apply for furlough on completion of three-year imprisonment, he added.
Khattar said this is just a legal process in which any convict can apply for furlough on completion of three years of sentence and then the administration has to consider the application as per law. He said, "it is just a coincidence" that the dera head had applied for a 21-day furlough at the time when Punjab is due to hold assembly polls.
The dera chief was convicted for the rape of sadhvis (female disciples) on August 25, 2017 by the special CBI court, Panchkula and sentenced to two jail terms of 10 years each, which are to run consecutively. On January 17, 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2002 murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati. He was awarded life imprisonment in October 2021 for the murder of former dera manager Ranjit Singh. He is facing trial in one more case involving castration of his followers inside the dera. Around 40 persons had lost their lives in August 2017 when the violence took place in Panchkula and other parts of Haryana and Punjab after he was convicted for two rape cases.
The dera chief's parole request had been rejected earlier and pleas for parole filed by his wife and his 'socially-adopted daughters' had been withdrawn earlier before the onset of the pandemic in 2020. He was issued one-day emergency parole to meet his mother in October 2020 and last year, where she is admitted to a Gurugram hospital.
Haryana jails minister Ranjit Singh Chautala also took the same excuse as Khattar and said that getting furlough was the right of every convict. He did not reveal details about the dera head's application for furlough.
Rajya Sabha member and Punjab BJP in-charge Dushyant Gautam said that many prisoners get a furlough in a month and it is just a legal process. "He has already completed three years in jail. We have nothing to do with him and he does not contest elections. Neither he is an MP nor an MLA so connecting his furlough with the elections are just speculations," said Gautam. Even in the absence of dera head, his followers hold big congregations in the Punjab branches of the dera as well as at Sirsa in Haryana in a show of strength. The management told them: "Stay home and trust no rumour."