The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 murder case of a journalist, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal issued the verdict on appeals filed against the conviction.

In 2019, a Central Bureau of Investigation court in Haryana’s Panchkula had sentenced Ram Rahim and three others – Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal – to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Ram Chander Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist.

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The journalist was shot dead in October 2002 after his newspaper Poora Sach published an anonymous letter narrating how Ram Rahim allegedly sexually harassed women at the Dera headquarters. A case was registered in 2003 and it was handed over to the CBI in 2006.

Ram Rahim was listed as the main conspirator in the case.

On Saturday, the High Court upheld the convictions and life sentences of Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Lal, according to Live Law.

Ram Rahim is currently serving a 20-year sentence given to him in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera headquarters.

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

He has been in Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak.

In January, Ram Rahim was granted a 40-day parole. He was permitted to stay at the headquarters of his organisation in Sirsa district during the period.

This was the fourth time since his conviction in 2017 that Ram Rahim had 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.

This was also the 15th time that Ram Rahim stepped out of prison since his conviction.