Chandigarh, October 14: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a prison sentence in Haryana's Sunaria jail, has been granted parole for 40 days, official sources said on Friday.

The move comes just ahead of the Adampur bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on November 3. The Dera chief had earlier come out of prison on a month-long parole in June. Prior to that, he was granted three weeks' furlough in February. Adampur Assembly By-Election 2022: Congress Fields Former MP Jai Prakash for Upcoming Bypoll in Punjab.

The sect chief is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the Dera is headquartered. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017. Adampur Assembly By-Election 2022: AAP Fields Satender Singh for Bypoll Next Month.

He was last year also convicted along with four others for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager, in 2002. The Dera chief and three others were convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)