New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana high court has acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and four others in the case pertaining to the 2002 murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

A bench of Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Lalit Batra pronounced the order.

The five men – Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, Inder Sain and Sabdil Singh – had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Haryana's Panchkula in 2021. They had been found guilty under Sections 302 (murder) and 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Ranjit Singh was shot dead in 2002. He was murdered for his suspected role in the circulation of an anonymous letter, which narrated how women followers (Sadvis) were being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters. Subsequently, Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati who published the same in a news report was also murdered.

According to the CBI charge sheet, the Dera chief believed that Ranjit Singh was behind the circulation of the anonymous letter and hatched a conspiracy to kill him.

In 2019, the sect head was awarded life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Chhatrapati. The journalist's son has expressed anger at the repeated parole granted to the chief.

The sect chief will continue to be in jail as he was also convicted in 2017 for raping two disciples. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been criticised for the repeated manner in which he is granted parole, with critics saying the Haryana government was trying to gain politically from being close to Gurmeet. In January, while he was out on parole, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana Krishan Lal Panwar and the state’s political secretary to the chief minister Krishan Bedi even attended Ram Rahim’s online satsang (religious meeting).

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.