Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20 year prison sentence for raping two of his disciples, was released from Sunaria jail in Rohtak on Monday following the grant of a 40 day parole. This marks the fifteenth time Singh has stepped out of prison since his conviction in 2017.
According to Dera spokesperson and advocate Jitender Khurana, Singh will stay at the sect’s headquarters in Sirsa for the duration of the parole period. Singh is also serving sentences in other criminal cases. In 2019, he and three associates were convicted for the murder of a journalist more than sixteen years earlier.
Records show that Singh has been repeatedly granted temporary relief from jail in recent years. He was last released on a 40 day parole in August 2025. Earlier, he received a 21 day furlough in April 2025 and a 30 day parole in January 2025, shortly before the Delhi assembly elections held on February 5. In October 2024, Singh was granted a 20 day parole days ahead of the Haryana assembly elections. He also received a 21 day furlough in August 2024 and a three week furlough in February 2022, just weeks before the Punjab assembly polls.
Several Sikh organisations, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, have previously criticised the repeated grant of parole and furlough to Singh. They have raised concerns over the frequency of such relief despite his convictions in serious criminal cases.
In May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Singh and four others in the 2002 murder case of the sect’s former manager Ranjit Singh. The court cited tainted and sketchy investigations and set aside the life sentences imposed earlier by a special CBI court. The CBI had alleged that Singh was part of a criminal conspiracy in the case.
During many of his earlier parole periods, Singh stayed at the Dera’s ashram in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. Dera Sacha Sauda has a significant following across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and other states, with a strong presence in districts such as Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Hisar.
