New Delhi: Out on parole for 40 days, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh organised his very first virtual satsang (spiritual gathering) Monday. Several Karnal BJP leaders, including Renu Bala Gupta, mayor of Karnal, which is also Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s constituency, logged in to hear the religious leader speak and sought the ‘blessings’ of the rape and murder convict.
Singh, who is serving a prison sentence in Haryana’s Sunaria jail after being convicted in rape and murder cases, was granted parole on 14 October for 40 days. His parole comes days before the Adampur bypoll and the Panchayat election in the state.
Mayor Gupta, who was seen having a virtual conversation with Singh, requested him to come to Karnal and said the city had benefitted from his blessings and his message of cleanliness. Singh was addressing the online satsang from Uttar Pradesh’s Barnawa village.
Senior Deputy mayor of Karnal Rajesh Aghi and Deputy Mayor Naveen Kumar, both members of the BJP, also interacted with the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. The video of the satsang is available on YouTube.
“I have come to Sirsa many times, want to meet you again,” said Aghi. The Dera is based in Sirsa, a district in Haryana.
Mayor Gupta also physically met Singh. And though she arrived only towards the end of the satsang on account of traffic, she took the microphone and addressed the Dera Chief as ‘Pitaji’ — a common way for Dera followers to refer to Singh.
“Pitaji, may you maintain your blessings on us. Last time you came to Karnal, you gave a message of cleanliness, this time also you should come and maintain your blessings,” the BJP mayor said.
ThePrint reached Gupta via calls, but had not received a response at the time of publishing this report. The story will be updated when a response is received.
Gupta has won the election for the mayor’s post twice in a row — in 2013 and 2018 — and retained her position in the seat reserved for women.
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Timely paroles
Ram Rahim has earlier been granted furloughs around important election dates. He was temporarily released from jail on 24 October, 2020, before the Baroda assembly bypoll in Haryana to meet his ailing mother. He was later granted a furlough for 21 days earlier this year in February before the Punjab assembly polls. He was again granted a month of parole in June before the civic body polls in Haryana and Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll in Punjab.
It is believed that the Dera Sacha Sauda chief enjoys much popularity among Haryana and Punjab’s Dalit communities and can swing election results. Before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Dera had openly supported the BJP for the first time.
Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017 after his conviction in the 2002 rape case, wherein he was charged with having raped two of his disciples.
In 2019, he was pronounced guilty along with three others for the murder of journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati, who had published an anonymous letter in his newspaper alleging sexual exploitation of the women by the Dera chief at his ashram. In 2021, a special CBI court sentenced him to life imprisonment along with four others for the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh in 2002.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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Source: The Print
