Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his four aides convicted in the Ranjit Singh murder case

A Panchkula CBI Special Court on Friday convicted self-styled godman and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his four aides in the Ranjit Singh murder case. The Panchkula CBI special court judge Sushil Garg pronounced him and others guilty.

The quantum of punishment, however, will be pronounced on October 12.

Besides Gurmeet Ram Rahim, his aides Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, Avtar Singh and Sabdil have also been convicted in the case. Another co-accused in the case Inder Sain, however, had died in October 2020.

Ram Rahim is already serving a jail term in a rape case and is lodged at Sunaria jail in Rohtak.

On October 5, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed a petition seeking the transfer of the Dera follower murder case from Panchkula CBI Special Judge to any other Special CBI court in Haryana, Punjab or Chandigarh.

The victim Ranjit Singh, a follower and one of the managers at the Dera in Sirsa (Haryana), was allegedly murdered on July 10, 2002.

A First Information Report (FIR) on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy was registered at police station Thanesar in Kurukshetra in this context. Ranjit Singh was reportedly shot dead when he was returning from his fields in his native village.

Ranjit Singh's son Jagseer Singh had filed the petition and was fighting the case.

On November 10, 2003, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered CBI investigation in the case. The CBI had registered an FIR in the case on December 3, 2003.

In CBI’s probe, Jasbir Singh, Sabdil Singh, Krishan Lal, Inder Sain and dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh were named as accused. According to the CBI charge sheet, Dera chief suspected Ranjit Singh of circulating an anonymous letter among the Dera followers. As per the contents of the letter, the Dera chief was accused of sexually exploiting women followers (sadhvis) inside the Dera.

This was the same letter, which a Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati highlighted in his newspaper. Chhatrapati was subsequently murdered after the publication of the news. The Dera chief has also been convicted on murder charges in Chhatrapati murder case recently.

Since the Dera head suspected Ranjit Singh to be behind that letter, he also allegedly hatched a conspiracy to eliminate him.