Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim brought back to Sunaria jail in Rohtak

Confirming the development, a Rohtak district administration officer said that the Dera chief was lodged back at Sunaria jail in Rohtak around noon. During his 21-day period of furlough, Singh stayed at his Dera in Gurgaon.

He was brought back under a tight police security cover. Haryana government, citing a high-threat perception to the Dera chief from “pro-khalistani” elements had also enhanced his security detail to Z plus category a week before Punjab went to polls on February 20.

The Dera chief is serving a 20-year imprisonment for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera’s headquarters in Sirsa.  A Special CBI court at Panchkula had convicted him and awarded the 20-year imprisonment in August 2017. Reacting to Dera chief’s conviction, his followers went on a rampage across Panchkula and various other places across the State. The clashes between armed forces and Dera’s followers who were protesting against his conviction had left over 38 people dead.

Singh had moved an application seeking furlough that was accepted by the state government’s concerned departments after they concluded that he did not fall in the category of hardcore prisoners.

The timing of his release close to the Punjab assembly polls had raised many eyebrows. However, on February 7, the day when he was released from the prison, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had rejected any link between Dera chief’s release from the prison and Punjab assembly polls.

“I think it is a coincidence and has no connection with the polls,” Khattar had said. Subsequently, during a media briefing with home minister Anil Vij by his side, Khattar had also said that Dera chief’s Z-plus security would automatically get over once he was lodged back in the prison.

Haryana’s cabinet minister (power and prisons) Ranjit Singh had also refuted any connection between Dera chief’s release and Punjab assembly polls.

In 2020, the Dera chief was also convicted along with four others for hatching conspiracy to kill Dera’s then manager Ranjit Singh in 2002. In 2019, Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three others were convicted for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago. He was held guilty for hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused for these killings and convicted under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.