Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh gets Supreme Court notice in 2002 murder case

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for allegedly raping two of his female disciples and is currently lodged in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak. (File photo)

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and four others based on a plea of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which acquitted them in the 2002 murder of sect’s former manager Ranjit Singh.

Earlier on May 28, 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Singh and others in the case, observing the probe was "tainted and sketchy". "Media trials must not make objective evaluations of the evidence on record," the high court had further held, PTI reported.

Those acquitted include Avtar Singh, Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, and Sabdil Singh whereas another accused Inder Sain, died during the pendency of the trial in 2020.

On Friday, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar issued notices to the five acquitted persons including Singh.

The top court bench took note of the submissions of solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, that a bench headed by Justice Bela M Trivedi had issued notices to the acquitted persons on a separate plea filed by the deceased's father against the high court verdict.

Ranjit Singh was fatally shot at by four unidentified assailants at Khanpur Kolian Village in Haryana's Kurukshetra on July 10, 2002. The murder was allegedly orchestrated by Ram Rahim Singh, who suspected the deceased of being behind the circulation of an anonymous letter accusing him of sexually exploiting his women followers.

The CBI took over the probe in November 2023 and said there was a clear motive behind the crime. However, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Singh observing the prosecution's failure to conclusively establish the motive and said the case was "shrouded in doubts".

In the murder case, all the five accused were convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula n October, 2021. They were sentenced them to life-term imprisonment and were acquitted by the high court in May 2024.

Sirsa-based Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for allegedly raping two of his female disciples and is currently lodged in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, Haryana.

He was also awarded life-term imprisonment for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, which will commence after the completion of his current sentence.

Over the past years, Ram Rahim Singh has grabbed headlines for securing parole multiple times.