The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati more than seven years after a special CBI court had convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2019. Despite his acquittal in the murder case, Ram Rahim will continue to stay in jail as he is already serving a 20-year sentence in two rape cases.
Confirming the news, Ram Rahim’s lawyer Jitender Khurana stated that the High Court had set aside his client’s conviction and acquitted him in the case related to the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
In the year 2019, the accused Ram Rahim, along with three other accused, namely Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh, and Krishan Lal, had been convicted by a special CBI court for the murder. They were given life sentences under Sections 302 and 120-B of the IPC. The Dera chief had challenged the verdict in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had reserved the judgment after hearing the appeal.
Ram Chander Chhatrapati, a journalist living in the neighborhood of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect’s headquarters in Sirsa, Haryana, was the owner of a newspaper by the name of Poora Sach. He was shot in October 2002 outside his residence and later died from his injuries. It is believed that the shooting occurred after an anonymous letter appeared in the journalist’s newspaper, which accused the Dera chief of sexually abusing women at the sect.
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