NEW DELHI: Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the convicted chief of Sirsa's Dera Sacha Sauda, who was sentenced in 2017 to 20 years in prison for raping two of his disciples and is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak district, has been granted a 21-day furlough once again. During this period, Singh will stay at the Dera's ashram in Barnawa, located in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district.

Ram Rahim's temporary release comes shortly after the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's (SGPC) petition opposing his release. In June, Singh had approached the high court, seeking a 21-day furlough, and on August 9, the court observed that the competent authority should consider such requests without any "arbitrariness or favouritism."

This is the second time this year that Singh has been granted furlough. Earlier, on January 19, he was given a 50-day parole just months before the Lok Sabha elections, which were held in India from April 19 to June 1, 2024, in seven phases.

Two months before that, in November 2023, he was granted a 21-day furlough ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly elections, marking his third release for the year. Before this, he had been granted a 30-day parole in July during the Haryana Panchayat elections, and a 40-day parole in January.

The Dera is headquartered in Sirsa, Haryana, and it chief Ram Rahim along with three others was convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago and has been in Rohtak jail since 2017.