Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh – serving life imprisonment in rape and murder cases – is set to walk out of the jail on Monday after the Haryana government approved a furlough for 21 days. Earlier, he had been given emergency paroles, from sunrise to sunset, multiple times to meet his ailing mother but this time, he has been granted furlough.
The Dera chief is currently lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail for raping two of his disciples and has been convicted in the 19-year-old murder case of Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
The move is seen as a major development in wake of the Assembly elections in Punjab. Dera followers have considerable sway in Punjab’s Malwa region, with their votes seen as key in deciding the outcome of polls. Punjab will vote for a new government in a single-phase poll on February 20 and the votes will be counted on March 10.
Haryana jail minister Ranjit Singh Chautala said it was the right of every inmate to get furlough as per law and the same was applied to the Dera chief.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that furlough to Gurmeet Ram Rahim has nothing to do with any polls, stressing that the Dera chief got the furlough as per the procedures. Khattar was addressing a media briefing after Bollywood actor Mahie Gill and Punjabi actor Hobby Dhaliwal joined the BJP.
In 2007 Dera Sacha Sauda openly supported the Congress and the result was spectacular, with the party winning 37 seats to the 29 claimed by the (then) BJP-Akali Dal alliance.