Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has once again been granted a 40-day parole, reported The Times of India on Sunday.

He is lodged in Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak and will stay at the headquarters of his organisation in Sirsa district during the parole, according to the newspaper.

This is the fourth time since his conviction in 2017 that Singh has been allowed to visit the place. At other times when he has been released on parole or furlough, he stayed at his organisation’s ashram in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh.

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This is also the 15th time that Singh will step out of prison since his conviction.

He was last released on a 40-day parole by the Haryana government on August 5. He was released on furlough in April for 21 days. He was also granted a 30-day parole in January, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.

While a furlough can be given without any specific reason after a prisoner has served a stipulated period of time in prison, parole is based on an urgent demand or need.

Singh was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera’s Sirsa headquarters.

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In 2021, he and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of a former manager of his sect. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the murder case in May 2024.

In February 2024, the High Court had told the Haryana government that Singh could not be granted parole without its permission. This came a month after Singh was released for 50 days, which was his seventh parole in 24 months and ninth in four years.

However, in August 2024, the High Court said that the application for temporary release filed by Singh will be decided by competent authorities as per the provisions of the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act without “favouritism or arbitrariness”.

The bench left the decision on Singh’s application for furlough to the Haryana Prisons Department.