The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, in the 2002 murder case of a journalist. The acquittal comes seven years after a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Confirming the development, Singh’s lawyer Jitendra Khurana said that the High Court had set aside the conviction in the case. “The court has acquitted him in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati,” Khurana said.

Singh and three others—Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh, and Krishan Lal—had been convicted by a special CBI court in 2019 for the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and were sentenced to life imprisonment. The Dera chief had challenged the verdict before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had heard the appeal and reserved its judgment earlier.

Reporter Worked for Newspaper Poora Sach

Chhatrapati, who ran the newspaper Poora Sach, was shot outside his house in Sirsa, Haryana, in October 2002. The attack came after his publication carried an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of women followers at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters.

Despite the acquittal in the murder case, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh continues to serve a 20-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. Following that conviction, he was lodged in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, Haryana.

The family of Ram Chander Chhatrapati approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2003, requesting that the investigation be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The probe was subsequently handed over to the agency, which filed its chargesheet in July 2007.

However, despite being acquitted in the murder case, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh remains in prison, serving a 20-year sentence after his 2017 conviction for raping two disciples. He is currently lodged in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, Haryana.