Overview
- Haryana prison authorities granted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh a 30-day parole and he left Rohtak’s Sunaria jail on Tuesday to stay at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa under police protection.
- This marks his 16th temporary release since 2020 and uses up the 70-day (10-week) parole allowance for 2026 under the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act of 2022.
- Officials have placed conditions on the release that bar him from holding physical gatherings at his Deras while permitting virtual addresses to followers, and district authorities cleared his Sirsa stay.
- Prison records show he has spent more than 400 days outside custody overall, a pattern that has drawn repeated criticism from Sikh bodies, opposition leaders and civil society who allege political favouritism.
- Legally, Ram Rahim remains serving a 20-year sentence for raping two disciples from an August 2017 CBI court verdict even though the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently acquitted him in two separate murder cases and CBI appeals are pending, a situation that keeps security and legal scrutiny high.