Supreme Court Responds to CBI's Challenge of Ram Rahim’s Acquittal in 2002 Murder Case
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New Delhi, Jan 3 (NationPress) The Supreme Court has taken a significant step by issuing a notice on a plea presented by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that disputes the acquittal of the contentious self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh from the Dera Sacha Sauda in the Ranjit Singh murder case.
A bench led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna alongside Sanjay Kumar has instructed that the CBI's special leave petition be associated with another ongoing petition submitted by a relative of the deceased, challenging the acquittal of Ram Rahim and four other co-defendants.
In September 2024, a bench comprising Justices Bela M. Trivedi and S.C. Sharma consented to evaluate a plea initiated by the complainant, Jasgeer Singh, and requested responses from the CBI, Ram Rahim, and the other accused parties.
In May of the prior year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted permission for appeals lodged by Ram Rahim and the others who had been convicted by a CBI court in Panchkula in 2021.
A bench of Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Lalit Batra of the high court overturned the convictions of Avtar Singh, Jasbir Singh, Sabdil Singh, and Krishan Lal, all of whom had received life sentences alongside the self-styled godman.
Despite this acquittal, Ram Rahim continues to serve time as he has been convicted in other serious offenses, including rape and murder. The former manager of Dera, Ranjit Singh, was killed by four attackers on July 10, 2002, in the village of Khanpur Kolian in Haryana's Kurukshetra.
In 2021, a special CBI court found Ram Rahim and others guilty of the murder, resulting in life sentences for all involved. The motive behind Ranjit Singh's murder was speculated to be linked to his alleged involvement in disseminating a letter that detailed the sect leader's sexual exploitation of women at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa.
A journalist from Sirsa, Ram Chander Chhatrapati, later utilized the same letter in a news article. Tragically, he was murdered shortly after his report was published. Ram Rahim was also found guilty of the journalist's murder.
