In 2017, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his disciples. Since then, he has been out of prison either on parole or furlough 10 times, the latest starting August 13 when he got out on a 21-day furlough. By the time this furlough period ends, the Dera chief would have spent 255 days, or more than eight months, of his prison sentence outside jail. A closer look at these paroles and furloughs shows that several of the recent ones have coincided with elections in Haryana and other states. The latest furlough also comes weeks before Haryana votes in the Assembly elections on October 1. In 2022, the Dera chief was thrice let out of prison. First came a 21-day furlough in early February, weeks before the Punjab Assembly elections were held. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept to power with 92 seats, while the BJP won only two and the Congress 18 seats. Then he received a 30-day parole in June, with the move raising eyebrows as the panchayat elections were around the corner. Though he remained confined in his ashram in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, Ram Rahim’s online satsang (discourses) in Rohtak district created a stir after BJP leader and former Karnal mayor Renu Bala Gupta was seen seeking his blessings virtually. Then he got a 40-day parole again in October, just ahead of an Assembly bypoll in Adampur. The following year, in July, the Dera chief received a 30-day parole that came as panchayat elections were being held in some parts of the state. He then got out on a 21-day furlough in November 2023, just days before Rajasthan — another state where the Dera has a substantial following — went to the polls in the Assembly elections. This January, months before the Assembly elections, he was released on a 50-day parole. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has consistently objected to Ram Rahim’s repeated release from prison and even challenged it in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. But last month the court dismissed the SGPC’s petition. Political support for Ram Rahim Prison officials claim that Ram Rahim is not receiving preferential treatment and is availing of a facility that is available to all convicts. According to government data from 2023, of the 5,832 convicts in the state’s three central and 17 district jails, 2,801 availed of temporary release, including 2007 on parole and 794 on furlough. Some convicts availed of both and that too multiple times during the year, according to officials. The above figure excludes 183 convicts who availed of temporary release from prison, including “emergency parole” and “custody parole” in the same period. Then there is political support for the Dera chief. Haryana Jail Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala who is now in the BJP is likely to contest the coming elections to retain the Rania Assembly seat that is part of Sirsa district, where the Dera Sacha Sauda's headquarters is located. Ranjit Singh, one of the sons of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, is among the BJP leaders, including former CM and current Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who have consistently supported paroles and furloughs for Ram Rahim, pointing out that no rules have been violated. When Ram Rahim was released in January, Ranjit Singh said, “According to the jail manual, any prisoner is given parole for 70 days and furlough for 30 days. Furlough is given once, parole can be taken twice. It is a prisoner's choice. There are 23 to 24,000 prisoners in Haryana jails and the same rules apply to all. A prisoner who has been sentenced to seven years in prison can apply through the District Magistrate. Those who are serving punishment more than seven years, their case is taken up by the Divisional Commissioner.” Last year, Khattar also cited rules and regulations when asked about the issue. “If he has got parole, then it must be after following all the procedures and that is his right. All the convicts apply for parole as per the rules. If the rule permits, he gets it; if the rule does not permit, he does not get it,” said the then CM. The father-in-law of Ram Rahim’s son is three-time Congress MLA Harminder Jassi who joined the BJP this May in the presence of Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. But the links between the Dera chief and BJP extend beyond family and go long back. In 2014, the Dera openly supported the BJP in Haryana in the Lok Sabha polls. Though the party won seven of the 10 parliamentary seats in the state, it lost Sirsa to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Later that year, the Dera backed the BJP again in the Assembly polls and that is said to be one of the factors that helped the party win the state for the first time as its tally rose from four to 47 in the 90-member House. After the elections, several BJP leaders made a beeline to meet Ram Rahim and the photos of their vehicles queued up outside the Dera headquarters in Sirsa went viral. But the bonhomie between the two parties took a hit after Ram Rahim’s conviction in 2017 and two years later, during the Lok Sabha elections, the Dera officially did not support any political party. With Jassi in the BJP, the Dera supported the party in Haryana again during this year’s Lok Sabha elections.
