“You should all participate in this festival. You should celebrate this festival like Diwali,” he mentioned.
Singh additionally seeks to congratulate his followers on the event of the month-long ‘MSG Bhandara’, or the celebration of Shah Satnam Singh’s delivery anniversary (25 January). He additionally asks his followers to not come to his ashram in Uttar Pradesh.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a self-styled godman with appreciable affect, is presently out on parole for 50 days. The parole comes just a bit over a month after he returned to Haryana’s Sunaria jail on 14 December 2023, after a 21-day furlough.
That is the seventh time Ram Rahim Singh has walked out of jail previously two years, and the ninth since his conviction in 2017.
In 2022 and 2023, Singh got here out of jail on six events — on a 21-day furlough on 7 February 2022, on a 30-day parole on 17 June 2022, on a 40-day parole on 15 October 2022, on a 40-day parole on 21 January 2023, on a 30-day parole on 20 July 2023, and on a 21-day furlough on 21 November 2023.
Earlier than this, the Dera chief was introduced out on parole for twenty-four hours in a “secret” method by police on 24 October 2020. One other one-day parole was granted on 21 Could 2021 so he may meet his ailing mom.
The Dera chief is serving 20 years’ imprisonment for the rape of two feminine disciples, sentenced on 25 August 2017, and two life sentences — since January 2019 and October 2021 — for the murders of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera supervisor Ranjit Singh, respectively.
Given Singh’s brush with politics — he’s the one Dera chief who has been recognized to dabble in politics — his frequent launch from jail has created a storm of allegations for Haryana’s BJP authorities, particularly with the Lok Sabha elections across the nook.
Sudesh Kumari, common secretary of the NGO Jan Sangharsh Manch, who led an agitation in opposition to the Dera after Chhatrapati’s homicide, mentioned it was not the BJP alone however all earlier governments that had helped Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
“The problem with the BJP is that it says something and does exactly the opposite,” she informed ThePrint.
“This government is planning to bring a law proposing capital punishment for the rape of girls aged below 12 years, and here is a man against whom the rape of two of his disciples has already been proved in the courts and the BJP is helping him remain out of jail,” mentioned Kumari.
The BJP-led authorities, nevertheless, dismissed the allegations, saying that they had nothing to do with choices relating to Singh’s parole/furlough functions.
Chatting with ThePrint, Haryana Minister for Jails Ranjit Singh Chautala mentioned the choice is taken by jail authorities and the native administration.
ThePrint additionally tried to achieve some senior leaders of the Opposition — the Congress and the Indian Nationwide Lok Dal (INLD) — for a touch upon the matter, however they requested to be excused.
Additionally Learn: Out on parole, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim cuts cake with sword in viral video
Political brush
A political analyst who didn’t want to be named informed ThePrint that the Dera Sacha Sauda solely began dabbling in politics beneath Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, saying his predecessors by no means did so.
Singh took over the reins of the Dera in 1990. Whereas he turned a draw for political leaders of the area quickly afterwards, he first provided public assist to a celebration within the 2007 Punjab meeting polls.
The Dera supported the Congress within the election, but it surely was the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance that received.
The SAD, nevertheless, misplaced a lot of the seats in Punjab’s Malwa area, the place Ram Rahim had appreciable affect.
Months later, Singh was booked by Punjab Police in a case of blasphemy for allegedly dressing up as Guru Gobind Singh throughout a congregation at Salabatpura in Punjab.
The Dera subsequently arrange a ‘political affairs wing’.
Within the 2014 meeting polls in Haryana, the Dera overtly supported the BJP, with hundreds of Singh’s followers attending a rally held by PM Narendra Modi at Sirsa in October that yr.
Earlier than the polling, Kailash Vijayvargiya, who was the BJP’s incharge for Haryana on the time, took 40 candidates of the occasion to Ram Rahim to “seek his blessings” on 13 October 2014.
That yr, the BJP went on to type a authorities of its personal within the state for the primary time.
After the formation of the federal government, greater than 18 MLAs and a few ministers accompanied Vijayvargiya to Ram Rahim Singh to thank him for his assist.
Chatting with ThePrint, Chhatrapati’s son Anshul mentioned the BJP’s relationship with the Dera chief “is a perfect example of quid pro quo”.
“During the 2014 assembly polls, the Dera chief, who claims to have followers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and some other states, had extended support to the BJP by sending his supporters in large numbers to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Sirsa,” he added.
“Modi, too, had talked of the sanitation campaign by the Dera. Before Ram Rahim’s conviction, several ministers of Khattar’s cabinet visited the Dera to seek Ram Rahim’s blessings. He was also seen with Khattar during a sanitation campaign at Karnal,” he mentioned.
Jagmati Sangwan, vice-president of the All India Girls’s Democratic Affiliation (AIDWA), mentioned “everyone knows that the BJP releases Ram Rahim ahead of every election and doesn’t have any regret for this”.
“In March last year, the Haryana government told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that Ram Rahim isn’t a hardcore criminal or a serial killer while defending the parole to Dera chief,” she mentioned.
“We shudder at the thought that a man against whom the rape of two disciples and the murder of two men, one of them the real brother of one of the rape victims, has been proved in the court of law isn’t a hardcore criminal for the BJP government,” she added.
Sangwan mentioned the “BJP has been supporting people accused of rape and sexual harassment to the hilt”.
“Take the examples of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (MP and former Wrestling Federation of India chief), and Haryana minister Sandeep Singh, one finds a trend,” she added.
She mentioned this angle is “precisely the reason that Haryana’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) has seen a decline in the recent months”.
“Such an attitude of the government affects the mindset of people toward the girl child,” she added.
Sudesh Kumari mentioned the “problem with BJP is that it says something and does exactly the opposite”.
Additionally Learn: Come election, Dera chief & rape-murder convict Ram Rahim out of jail, once more. Haryana govt says ‘no link’
‘Nothing amiss’
Chatting with ThePrint, Haryana Minister for Jails Ranjit Singh Chautala made gentle of the allegations surrounding Singh’s frequent launch from jail.
There’s nothing unlawful within the parole for the Dera chief, he mentioned, including that it has been granted beneath the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Non permanent Launch) Act, 2022.
“Under this Act, a convicted prisoner may be released on parole for 10 weeks (70 days) in a calendar year, and the prisoner may avail this in two parts,” he added. “Similarly, a convicted prisoner may also be released on furlough for a period of three weeks (21 days) in a calendar year and this period cannot be availed in parts.”
The political management, he added, “doesn’t even come into the picture”. “The convict applies [for parole/furlough] before the jail superintendent, and the release orders are issued by the deputy commissioner if the convict’s sentence is for less than seven years and by the commissioner if the sentence is more than seven years.”
Chautala mentioned there was nothing amiss about the truth that, this time, Singh was out of jail simply over a month after his earlier furlough ended.
“The last time Ram Rahim got a 21-day furlough was on 21 November 2023, while now, he has come out on a 50-day parole in January 2024,” he added. “Since the calendar year has changed, there is no irregularity.”
Chhatrapati, nevertheless, mentioned the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Non permanent Launch) Act was amended in 2022 to go well with the Dera chief.
“Before this amendment, Ram Rahim’s application was rejected thrice because he didn’t fulfil the conditions under the old law. Once, he applied for release for attending to his agriculture fields, but the report from the authorities said he had no land to his name,” he added.
“The second time, he cited the marriage of his muh-boli beti (adopted daughter), but the report by the authorities said, as the father of two daughters, he was not legally eligible to adopt a daughter,” Anshul mentioned, including that the third rejected software cited his ailing mom’s remedy.
“But the report of the authorities said the Dera Sacha Sauda at Sirsa where Ram Rahim Singh’s mother lived had a multi-speciality hospital on the premises, and that she had a grandson and granddaughters and their families to look after her,” he mentioned.
After his functions have been rejected on a number of events, the federal government “did away with all these conditions to suit Ram Rahim”, he added.
Reached for remark, a senior officer of the Haryana Prisons Division mentioned on the situation of anonymity that the state authorities had amended the legislation “to make it simple and easier for the prisoners to get paroles and furloughs”.
“Before the amendment, we were following the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 1988. Under the old law, there were certain conditions like death or serious illness in the family; marriage of the prisoner, or their son, daughter, grandchild, brother or sister; for harvesting, sowing or other agricultural operations, or any other sufficient cause, for allowing parole,” the officer added.
“But under the new Act, all these conditions have been removed, because the prisoners used to fabricate documents to apply for parole.”
Sudesh Kumari mentioned it might be silly to anticipate this authorities, and even the political events within the Opposition now, to do something (after they got here to energy) in regards to the Dera chief.
“If he (Dera chief) could finally be punished in 2017, it was because of the judiciary,” she added.
“Even now, one hopes that the judiciary takes suo motu action and takes cognisance of the mockery of the system being made by releasing Ram Rahim time and again.”
This report has been edited to make clear Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s assertion to his followers about visiting his ashram. It was not made within the context of the ‘pran pratishtha’ occasion, as the sooner model of this report steered.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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