Chandigarh: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was acquitted today by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the 2002 murder case of former Dera official Ranjit Singh. Singh, a member of the Dera’s state-level committee, was shot dead in 2002. It was alleged that the murder was linked to his suspected role in circulating an anonymous letter detailing how Ram Rahim was sexually exploiting women at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa, Haryana.
In 2021, a CBI court had convicted Ram Rahim and four others in the murder case, sentencing them to life imprisonment. The special court concluded that it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Dera chief, aggrieved by the circulation of the letter, conspired with the other accused to kill Ranjit Singh. Ram Rahim, 56, challenged this conviction in the high court. Today, the high court acquitted him and the four others convicted by the CBI court.
The controversial Dera chief is currently in jail, having been convicted of raping two sadhvis at the Dera and for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who had reported extensively on the sexual assault allegations against him.
The Dera Sacha Sauda garnered national attention after allegations of sexual assault against Gurmeet Ram Rahim emerged, leading to a CBI investigation. In 2014, a decade after the probe began, Ram Rahim claimed he was impotent, but the court rejected this claim. His 2017 conviction sparked widespread violence and arson, resulting in 30 deaths, over 250 injuries, and the deployment of the Army to restore order. Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year jail term and has challenged his convictions in the high court.
