Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is now on parole, was spotted “celebrating” by using a sword to cut a cake. The Sirsa-Dera commander, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for rape and murder, left the Sunaria Jail in Haryana’s Rohtak district on Saturday and made it to his Barnawa Ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat after receiving a 40-day release. On social media, a video of Ram Rahim’s celebration including the enormous cake has gone viral.
Ram Rahim stated in his bail application that he plans to attend a celebration on January 25 to commemorate the birth anniversary of former dera chief Shah Satnam Singh.
The Dera chief is heard stating in the alleged footage that has appeared on social media, “I should cut at least five cakes since I finally had this opportunity to rejoice after five years. The first cake is this one.”
The Arms Act, incidentally, forbids the public display of weapons (such as slicing a cake with a sword).
The volunteers from Ram Rahim’s sect had organised a massive cleaning operation across several areas in Haryana and other states, and they had essentially launched it on Monday. A few prominent BJP members from Haryana, including former minister Krishan Kumar Bedi and Rajya Sabha MP Krishan Lal Panwar, attended the ceremony.
Ram Rahim has been granted parole four times in the past 14 months, and twice in less than three months. Prior to the Adampur Assembly byelection and the Haryana panchayat election, he was freed on parole for 40 days in October 2022.
In August 2017, a special CBI court in Panchkula found him guilty of raping two of his devotees. According to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana’s 2003 rulings, the CBI had opened an inquiry into the case that had previously been opened at Police Station Sadar in Kurukshetra.
On July 10, 2002, while working in his fields in the hamlet of Khanpur Kolian in the Haryana district of Kurukshetra, it was believed that Ranjit Singh, a resident, was murdered.
Following an extensive investigation, the CBI submitted a charge sheet in 2007 against six defendants, charges were made in 2008, and on October 8, 2021, the court found Rahim and four other defendants guilty of the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
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