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A major legal relief has come for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh as the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday set aside his conviction in the murder case of journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati.
The court’s decision overturned a 2019 verdict by a Special CBI court that had sentenced Ram Rahim to life imprisonment for allegedly plotting the killing of the Sirsa-based journalist. Chhatrapati had been shot in October 2002 after his newspaper published reports critical of the Dera chief.
Along with Ram Rahim, three other men, Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal, had also been convicted in the case and awarded life imprisonment by the CBI court, along with a fine of Rs 50,000 each.
Delivering its judgment, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal acquitted Ram Rahim and the other accused, bringing an end to the long-running case that had remained under legal scrutiny for years.
Despite the acquittal in this case, Ram Rahim will remain in prison as he is currently serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his female followers. He has been lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak since 2017 after being convicted in the rape case.
His conviction in 2017 had triggered widespread violence in Haryana, particularly in Panchkula, where clashes between his supporters and security forces left more than 40 people dead and dozens injured.
Ram Rahim has also faced legal battles in other cases linked to the Dera Sacha Sauda organisation. In 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had similarly acquitted him and four others in the 2002 murder case of Dera manager Ranjit Singh, overturning another life sentence handed down by a Special CBI court in Panchkula.
The self-styled godman has also been granted temporary releases from jail several times. Earlier this year, in January, he was released on 40-day parole, a move that had previously sparked political criticism and concerns over law and order.