3rd time this year: As polls near, Dera chief walks out on parole

Chandigarh: A convict in rape and murder cases, Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was on Saturday released on parole by the Haryana government. Coincidentally or deliberately, the controversial preacher is being released by state just before any important election in the state or the region.
He has been granted parole for 40 days by the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar-led state government this time.

The relief for the Dera chief, who claims to have a massive following in the state, has come at a time when the state is set to witness panchayati raj elections and one crucial bypoll for the state assembly in Adampur, Hisar. These panchayat polls assume more significance for the Khattar government, which wants to test its popularity in the rural belt of the state. The panchayat polls in the state were much awaited and were being delayed for almost a year. On June 17, he was granted parole/furlough for around a month just before the state was to conduct the municipal body elections in the state.
On February 7, the Haryana government had granted furlough to the dera chief for 21 days, just before the state assembly elections in Punjab.
Initially, he was temporarily released on October 24, 2020, just before the crucial Baroda assembly bypoll in Haryana.
However, at that time, he was released for the first time only from sunrise to sunset to meet his ailing mother at a Gurugram hospital.
When contacted, Ranjit Singh, jails minister of Haryana, told TOI that it might be a coincidence that Dera chief’s release came near some elections, but the government had been releasing him as per his application and within the statutory provisions.
Ranjit Singh also claimed BJP candidate's victory from Adampur by a margin of 15,000 votes.
The dera has a political wing that decides and issues directions to its followers just a day before elections about support.
Political parties have always been seeking Dera’s support for elections and most senior BJP leaders frequented it till just before his conviction in rape cases in August 2017. In 2014 assembly polls, the dera had supported BJP.
Dera chief has been serving a sentence in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail since August 2017.
On August 25, 2017, the special CBI court in Panchkula had convicted him of raping his woman followers and sentenced him to two terms of 20 years in jail. On January 17, 2019, the CBI court had sentenced him to life imprisonment for the 2002 murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati.
In October last year, the special CBI court awarded him life imprisonment in connection with former Dera manager Ranjit Singh’s murder case. Around 40 persons had lost their lives in August 2017, after violence broke out in Panchkula and other parts of Haryana and Punjab over the Ram Rahim’s conviction.