The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the murder case of journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati.
Chhatrapati was shot at point-blank range at his residence on October 24, 2002. The attack occurred months after his newspaper published an anonymous letter alleging that women who joined the dera as sadhvis were sexually harassed and raped by the dera chief.
On January 17, 2019, a special CBI court in Panchkula sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 50,000. The Dera chief and the co-accused challenged the verdict later that year, arguing that they had been falsely implicated in the case.
Ram Rahim is currently serving a 20-year jail term in two rape cases dating back to 2017 and is lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana. In May 2024, however, the high court acquitted him in the 2002 murder case of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.
He has also been named in several FIRs related to the 2015 sacrilege incidents in Punjab, which are still under investigation.
Source: News18