New Delhi: Religious leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a jail term for rape and murder, hosted a virtual satsang event on Wednesday, October 19, which saw the participation of several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including the mayor of Haryana’s Karnal, according to NDTV.
The Dera Sacha Sauda chief, who was convicted in 2017, is on 40-day parole that began last week. The virtual event and grant of parole came under severe criticism, with opposition parties in Haryana levelling allegations they were done to influence next month’s bye-election and panchayat polls in the state.
Those who participated in the event include Karnal mayor Renu Bala Gupta, deputy mayor Naveen Kumar and senior deputy mayor Rajesh Aggi, among other BJP leaders who have either been confirmed or aspiring to contest upcoming polls to the civic bodies.
On her attendance at the event, the Karnal mayor told ANI, “I was invited to the satsang by the sadh sangat. Online satsang was done from Uttar Pradesh. Many people in my ward are associated with Baba. We reached the programme from a social connection, and it has nothing to do with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the upcoming by-poll.”
When asked if she would seek the blessings of the religious leader, the mayor said, “It is necessary to have the blessings of the people.”
She sought to emphasise that all convicts had the right to file applications for parole and that there was no special treatment in the case of Ram Rahim Singh, who enjoys the support of lakhs of devotees in the state.
“He may have taken parole for the festival of Diwali, and we should not equate it with elections,” the mayor added.
Adampur assembly constituency in the state is set to vote in a bye-election on November 3. Nine districts of the state will go to polls for panchayats on November 9 and 12.
Ram Rahim, who is convicted of the rape of two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, is currently serving a jail term of 20 years. In August 2017, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) convicted him in the case. In the immediate aftermath of his conviction, his supporters went berserk resulting in violence in which over 30 people were killed and properties worth crores were vandalised.
Subsequently, he was convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago. In 2021, he was also convicted in another case, along with four others, for conspiring to kill a Dera manager, Ranjit Singh, in 2002.