Hidden far away from national attention, when the media across India was focused on Bihar elections and the bypolls, Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana had granted a day’s parole to the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in late October. He is serving a 20-years jail sentence for raping two of his disciples and has been denied bail several times by the courts. Ram Rahim was granted parole based on his wife Harjit Kaur’s plea that his mother Naseeb Kaur, 85, is suffering from heart disease and was seriously ill.

Ram Rahim’s bail pleas have been rejected by the Courts several times. On April 24, his three-week parole to meet his ailing mother was rejected on two counts. First, the parole could create law and order problems in the state at the time of his release and surrender later. Second, a report by a panel of doctors, who examined his mother, said that she was suffering from heart disease, but was not in critical condition.

“There is a provision under the law that in case of an emergency in the family of a convict, the prisoner is allowed to visit his family under police protection. He was taken under full police protection after the government had taken into consideration all aspects,” Haryana Minister for Power and Prisons Ranjit Singh had informed. He said that had Ram Rahim sought parole for a larger period, the government would have taken several factors into consideration, since court cases were still pending against him, but this was for just one day for which the jail superintendent had the powers to allow parole.

Interestingly, in June 2019, Ram Rahim Singh had withdrawn his parole plea after the state BJP government was cornered by opposition parties for favouring the self-styled godman, who sought parole for 42 days to tend to his agricultural fields at his sect’s headquarters in Sirsa town. Also, the high court had in May last year rejected his parole plea for attending the wedding ceremony of his foster daughter.

A special CBI court in August 2017 had sentenced Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, the chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, to 20 years of imprisonment for raping two women; 10 years each for two rape cases that will run consecutively and not concurrently. The court also sentenced him and three others to life imprisonment for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago in January 2019.

His conviction announced on August 25, 2017, had led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa, leaving 41 people dead and over 260 injured. Ram Rahim was patronized by political leaders and parties in Punjab and Haryana for nearly two decades due to his ability to influence and pool the votes of his followers.

The Dera chief met his mother, who is hospitalized in Gurugram, officials had confirmed. He was taken under heavy security to the Gurugram hospital where he stayed during the day and was brought back to the jail in the evening.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness