Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim acquitted in journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati murder case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim, chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, in the October 2002 murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.

Ram Rahim, along with three others, had earlier been convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula on January 17, 2019. The trial court had sentenced the accused to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹50,000 each.

However, a high court bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal set aside Ram Rahim’s conviction while reportedly upholding the guilty verdict against at least two other accused in the case.

The bench pronounced its verdict in open court on Saturday morning, while the detailed judgment explaining the reasons for the acquittal is expected later in the day.

The 2002 murder case

Chhatrapati was shot at point-blank range at his residence on October 24, 2002. The attack came months after his newspaper published an anonymous letter alleging that women who joined the dera as sadhvis were sexually harassed and raped by the dera chief.

On January 17, 2019, the special CBI court in Panchkula had sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹50,000. The dera head and the co-accused challenged the verdict later that year, claiming they had been falsely implicated.

Ram Rahim is currently serving a 20-year sentence in two rape cases from 2017 and is lodged in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, Haryana. On August 25, 2017, more than 40 people were killed and dozens injured after violence broke out in Panchkula and other towns of Haryana between Ram Rahim’s followers and security forces following his conviction in the rape case.

In May 2024, the high court had also acquitted him in the 2002 murder case of former dera manager Ranjit Singh. He is also named in several FIRs linked to the 2015 sacrilege incidents that are still under investigation in Punjab.

Notably, Ram Rahim was released from jail in January this year after being granted a 40-day parole. The self-styled godman has received temporary releases on multiple occasions in the past as well, which have sparked political criticism and raised security concerns.