Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim convicted in a murder case

A special CBI Court has convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim guilty of murdering his follower, Ranjit Singh, in 2002. The Panchkhula based special courts judge special CBI judge Sushil Kumar Garg  on Friday held guilty Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and five other co-accused under Section 302 (murder) of IPC. The sentence will be announced on October 12. Earlier this week, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed a plea seeking the transfer of the murder trial against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh from the CBI court in Panchkula to any other CBI court.

There were mainly three cases registered against the Sirsa-based dera chief in 2002. All were investigated by the CBI. The dera chief has been convicted in two cases, one related to sexual exploitation of women disciples and the second of the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. The third case was of Ranjit Singh in which he was convicted on Friday. The first conviction was in a sexual exploitation case in August 2017, which had resulted in widespread violence in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.