Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/NEW Delhi: A large number of Indians have expressed their anger after Dera Sacha Sauda sect’s leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was earlier handed down jail term in two rape and murder cases, was released on parole.
According to the BBC, a video of the controversial religious guru serving long prison sentences went viral in India last week.
It showed Singh walking out of the prison on parole and cutting a cake with Honeypreet Insan, a young woman, he refers to as his adopted daughter. The event was uploaded on her Instagram account, reaching a million followers.
Indian guru cutting the cake with a sword
A few days earlier, another video of the guru cutting another, much larger cake with a sword had gone viral. The videos made headlines in India, with critics asking why the authorities allow Singh “frequent parole.”
Singh has been imprisoned at Sunaria jail in the northern state of Haryana since August 2017, after he was found guilty of raping two female followers and sentenced to 20 years. In 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a journalist, and in 2021, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of one of his employees in 2002.
Despite being convicted of such crimes, Singh has been released from prison for 131 days in the last 13 months, including a 21-day furlough in February 2022, 30 days of parole in June, and 40 days of parole in October.
On the 21st of January, he was released for another 40 days. “Parole is a right of all prisoners; it’s a human right,” said an official from Singh’s Dera Sacha Sauda.
While claiming that 100,000 people quit drugs daily because of him, the official stated that he is spending his time in spiritual discourse, working hard to address people’s problems, and working on the de-addiction program.
However, Singh’s release has been met with outrage on social media, with many questioning how a man convicted of rape and murder could be released.
Sikhism’s highest religious organization, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), has filed a petition in court challenging his parole, saying “it sends a wrong message to society.”
SGPC General Secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal said that Singh was “a disgrace” and his existence outside jail was “bad for society.”
Singh was most influential religious leaders of India until his conviction in 2017. His sprawling headquarters in the town of Sirsa in Haryana, where he was based, were visited by hundreds of thousands of devotees every year.
Singh was known as the “guru of bling” because he loved outrageous outfits and jewelry. He was also known as “rockstar baba” as he acted in his films, performed rock concerts, and rubbed shoulders with India’s high and mighty. For years, he was courted by India’s two major political parties, the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for his ability to sway election outcomes by encouraging his followers to vote for one or the other.
In recent years, he has sided with the BJP. In the run-up to the 2014 Haryana state assembly elections, he encouraged his supporters to vote for the party, which went on to win. Before his downfall, he was photographed with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar several times. Despite his convictions and lengthy prison sentences, Singh’s influence appears to have remained.
According to reports, he’s been holding virtual meetings with tens of thousands of followers from his ashram in Barnawa, Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, where he’s been staying while on parole.
Following the attendance of several BJP politicians, opposition parties began accusing the party of having a hand in his parole. Sanjay Sharma, the BJP’s chief spokesman in Haryana, denied that the party or its government had any role in granting Singh parole.
According to Supreme Court lawyer Akshat Bajpai, getting parole is extremely difficult, and it’s difficult to understand how Singh maintains it repeatedly.
Parole and furlough are “extraordinary measures meant to cater to particular needs of prisoners, such as a death in the family or wedding of children or siblings, but they are not meant to subvert judicial commands.”
