The High Court set aside the 2019 conviction by a special CBI court that had sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment.
Chhatrapati, editor of the newspaper Poora Sach, was shot outside his house in Sirsa in October 2002.
Despite the acquittal, Ram Rahim continues to remain in Sunaria jail in Rohtak as he is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2017 for raping two disciples.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who was killed in 2002. The acquittal has come over seven years after the sect chief had been convicted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court and awarded life imprisonment for the murder.
The journalist, who had been running the newspaper Poora Sach, had been fired at point-blank range by two assailants outside his residence in Sirsa, Haryana, on the night of October 24, 2002. The murder had occurred months after the journalist had published an anonymous letter in his newspaper claiming that the sect chief had been sexually exploiting women sect members who had joined the sect as sadhvis.
In January this year, a special CBI court had convicted the sect chief and three others, including Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh, and Krishan Lal, for the murder and had awarded them life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 50,000. Singh and the co-accused had later challenged the verdict in the high court, claiming they had been falsely implicated.
Confirming the latest ruling, Singh’s lawyer Jitender Khurana stated that the high court has now set aside the earlier conviction and acquitted him in the murder of the journalist case.
Despite the acquittal, Singh will still remain incarcerated as he is currently serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his disciples. The rapings took place in 2017, and Singh is currently lodged in the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana.
In another recent development, the high court had acquitted Singh in May 2024 for the 2002 murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh. In addition to these cases, Singh has also been implicated in a number of FIRs relating to the sacrilege incidents that took place in 2015 in the state of Punjab.