Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda acquitted in Ranjit Singh murder case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday quashed an arrest warrant issued by a special CBI court and acquitted Sirsa’s Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan and four others in the murder case of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

A bench comprising Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Lalit Batra passed the orders while allowing the Dera chief’s appeal against his conviction in the 2002 murder case. In October 2021, the CBI court in Panchkula sentenced him and four others to life imprisonment and also asked him to pay a fine of Rs 31 lakh.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is also serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his students, is currently in Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail. “The Supreme Court has acquitted him in the Ranjit Singh murder case,” said his lawyer Jitender Khurana.

The controversial preacher is serving prison sentences in the rape cases as well as the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhattarpati. He has appealed against all the verdicts in the Supreme Court.

Ranjit Singh was shot dead on July 10, 2002, in Khanpur Kolian village in Kurukshetra district of Haryana, allegedly on the orders of the Dera chief because he was suspected of circulating an incriminating anonymous letter describing how the preacher sexually exploited women who joined the Dera.

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