Rape convict and self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was acquitted by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in the 2002 Ranjit Singh murder case on Tuesday. Singh was one of the managers at the Dera Sacha Sauda's Sirsa unit.
In 2021, a special CBI court found Ram Rahim guilty of Singh's murder, sentencing him to life imprisonment.
The high court passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by Ram Rahim against his conviction.
"The high court has acquitted him in the Ranjit Singh murder case," Dera chief's lawyer Jitender Khurana said.
The Sirsa-headquartered sect chief, who is also serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples, is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana.
In 2021, Apart from Ram Rahim, four others were also sentenced to life imprisonment in the 19-year-old murder case of Singh. Singh was shot dead on July 10, 2002, at Khanpur Kolian village in Haryana's Kurukshetra.
He was murdered for his suspected role in the circulation of an anonymous letter, which narrated how women were being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters.
After his conviction by the CBI court in Panchkula, the sect chief appealed to the High Court.
He had challenged all the convictions before the high court. But, his appeals in the rape case and the journalist murder case are still pending. Ram Rahim is currently confined in Rohtak's Sunaria jail.
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