The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 murder case of Ram Chander Chhatrapati, editor of a local newspaper, who was shot dead after he exposed alleged abuses at Dera Sacha Sauda’s headquarters in Sirsa, Haryana.
Along with Gurmeet Ram Rahim, three other men, Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh, and Krishan Lal, were convicted in the high-profile murder case.
The appeals of two other accused were dismissed by the bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal, who upheld their convictions in the case.
Even with this acquittal in the murder case, Gurmeet Ram Rahim will remain behind bars, serving his ongoing sentence from a separate rape conviction.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s ruling followed weeks of meticulous evidence review by the bench. This scrutiny arose from controversy over the bullets allegedly used in the crime, which emerged as a pivotal issue during the examination of case records.
In 2019, a special court had convicted Ram Rahim along with three others for the murder of journalist Chhatrapati. The killing had occurred more than 16 years before the verdict was delivered, drawing widespread attention due to the long delay between the crime and the conviction.
Ram Rahim has also been in the public spotlight since his conviction in a rape case in 2017. Since that conviction, he has been granted temporary release from prison on 14 separate occasions.
During most of these periods of release, he stayed at the Dera Sacha Sauda’s ashram located in Uttar Pradesh’s Bagpat district.
Headquartered in Sirsa, the Dera Sacha Sauda organisation boasts a massive following across northern states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and beyond.
In Haryana, it wields considerable influence in districts including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, and Hisar, where followers form a key social base.
Bureau Report
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