New Delhi [India], August 10 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday admitted the appeal challenging the acquittal of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the 2002 murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, overturning his earlier conviction by a special CBI court.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana agreed to hear the appeal filed by the slain journalist’s son against the acquittal.
The bench has posted the appeal for final hearing in the week commencing November 16.
During the hearing, when the bench was told that the State government has not filed an appeal against the High Court verdict, the bench said, “We are also conscious of the fact that the State might not come in appeal.”
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 7 acquitted rape convict Ram Rahim in the journalist Ram Chandra Chhatrapati’s murder case while upholding the convictions of three other accused.
The High Court allowed Ram Rahim’s appeal against the trial court’s conviction, ruling that the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and noting gaps/coercion in the CBI witness testimony.
Ram Rahim was accused of orchestrating the killing of Ram Chandra Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist, for openly criticising the Dera chief in his newspaper.
The journalist was shot outside his home in Haryana’s Sirsa in October 2002. Chhatrapati, who ran the local newspaper Poora Sach, had published an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of female followers at the Dera’s headquarters in Sirsa.
In 2019, a Special CBI court found him guilty and pronounced life imprisonment in the case. Along with Ram Rahim, three other convicts – Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal – were also found guilty in the murder case and were awarded life imprisonment.
This is the second time the High Court has acquitted Ram Rahim in a high-profile murder case linked to the Dera. In May 2024, he and four others were cleared in the killing of former sect manager Ranjit Singh, with the court citing flaws in the investigation.
It was alleged that Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra, was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of District Kurukshetra in Haryana.
Ram Rahim has been serving a 20-year imprisonment since 2017 and is lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak for being convicted of raping two of his disciples.
On 25 August 2017, more than 40 people died, and dozens were injured after violence broke out in Panchkula and other towns of Haryana after his followers clashed with security forces following the conviction of Ram Rahim in the rape case.
Notably, rape convict Ram Rahim was released from jail in January this year after being granted a 40-day parole, officials said. This is not the first instance of parole granted to the self-styled godman, whose temporary releases in the past have drawn political criticism and security concerns. (ANI)
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