Gurmeet Ram Rahim walks out of jail on 21-day furlough

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of Sunaria jail on Tuesday on a 21-day furlough, his 17th release since conviction in 2017. He will stay at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa during the furlough

Chandigarh: Rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of the Sunaria jail in Rohtak on Tuesday morning on a 21-day furlough, sources said. It is the 17th time he has moved out of the prison since his conviction in August 2017. Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples and is currently lodged in the Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak. He will stay at his Sirsa-headquartered Dera during the furlough period, sources said.

The preacher has been granted furlough an unusually high number of times since his conviction. This is his third release this year alone.
He was granted a 30- and 40-day parole in May and January.

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He stepped out of prison on a 40-day parole in August 2025, a 21-day furlough in April 2025, and a 30-day parole in January 2025, ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly Polls.

He walked out of prison on a 20-day parole on October 1, 2024, days before the October 5 Haryana Assembly Polls. In August 2024, Ram Rahim was granted a 21-day furlough. He was also permitted a three-week furlough from February 7, 2022, barely two weeks before the Punjab Assembly Polls.

Sikh outfits, such as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, have criticised the recurring relief to Ram Rahim. In March, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Ram Rahim in the 2002 murder case of a journalist, seven years after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the case by a special CBI court.

In May 2024, the high court overturned another special CBI court order and acquitted Ram Rahim and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect’s former manager, Ranjit Singh.

The Sirsa-headquartered Dera Sacha Sauda has a huge following in Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan. In Haryana, the largest number of followers are from such districts as Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, and Hisar.