The self-styled godman walked out of Sunaria Jail at 6:34 am on Tuesday, with minimal visible security arrangements during his exit. Confirming the development, his advocate Jitendra Khurana told news agency ANI, “He will stay in his Dera Sacha Sauda, Sirsa, during the parole.”
His repeated temporary releases have previously triggered political criticism and raised security concerns.
With the latest 30-day parole, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s cumulative time spent outside prison will rise to 436 days over the past almost nine years. Before the current release, he had already spent 406 days out of prison through multiple paroles and furloughs.
His first release came in October 2020 for one day. In May 2021, he was granted a 12-hour release to visit his mother. In February 2022, he was released for 21 days, followed by a 30-day parole in June 2022. In October 2022, he secured a 40-day release, while another 40-day parole was granted in January 2023.
In July 2023, he was released for 30 days. This was followed by a 21-day parole in November 2023. In January 2024, he walked out of prison for 50 days. Another 21-day release was granted in August 2024, followed by a 20-day parole in October 2024.
In 2025, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was granted a 30-day release in January and another 21-day parole in April. In August 2025, he secured a 40-day release, followed by another 40-day parole in January 2026. The current 30-day parole granted in May 2026 marks his 16th temporary release since conviction.
The frequent releases of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief are legally facilitated under the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 2022.
The latest parole also comes months after significant legal developments in cases linked to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. On March 7 this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati murder case.
Ramchandra Chhatrapati, a Sirsa-based journalist, was allegedly killed for openly criticising Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in his newspaper. In 2019, a Special CBI court found Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of orchestrating the murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment in the case.
Along with him, Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal were also found guilty in the murder case and awarded life imprisonment. The Special CBI court had imposed a fine of ₹50,000 each on all the convicts.
In March this year, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court delivered the verdict acquitting Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the case.
Earlier in 2024, the High Court had also acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and four others in the 2002 murder case of former dera official Ranjit Singh. The Special CBI court of Panchkula had earlier sentenced all the accused, including Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and four others, to life imprisonment in the case.
According to the allegations in the case, Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian in Haryana’s Kurukshetra, was murdered on July 10, 2002, while working in his fields.
The latest parole granted to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh once again places the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda chief at the centre of public and political scrutiny, as questions continue over the repeated temporary releases granted to a convict serving a 20-year prison sentence in a sexual assault case.
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