May consider parole subject to correctness of facts mentioned in Dera head's plea: Haryana Chief Electoral Officer

Chandigarh: The Haryana government may consider Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's parole subject to the correctness of facts mentioned in his parole plea and satisfying other conditions with respect to the Model Code of Conduct for elections, Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said on Monday.

Singh has sought a 20-day parole ahead of the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls.

With the model code of conduct in place, the sect chief's application for parole was sent to the election department which had asked the jails department to specify the "emergent and compelling" reasons behind the request that justify the release of convicts on parole during polls.

The Dera chief wants to stay in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, during the parole, if granted.

The jails department had forwarded the Dera chief's parole plea to the office of the Haryana CEO in view of the Model Code being in place for the assembly polls.

"As MCC is in place for the elections, that is why it (parole plea) came to us for our view... We wrote back to the state government, saying they may consider the parole subject to the correctness of facts as mentioned in the letter (plea).

"Besides, other conditions in view of the polls should be satisfied (if parole is granted by govt)," he said.

He clarified that the CEO only had to give his view while the decision to grant parole rests with the state government or the prison department.

Singh is serving a 20-year sentence given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.

On Monday, the late journalist's son Anshul Chhatrapati said that granting parole to the Dera chief during the Haryana assembly elections would be a "violation of democratic values, fair elections and the right to fair voting".

He claimed that after coming out of jail, Singh "can influence the voting by sending messages to his devotees to benefit a particular party".

In August this year, Singh was granted a 21-day furlough.

At that time, Singh, who is lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail, during his temporary release period, had sought to stay at the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

Notably, in the past, some of his paroles and furloughs have coincided with polls in Punjab and Haryana and neighbouring states.

He was granted three weeks' furlough from February 7, 2022, barely two weeks before the Punjab Assembly polls.

In the past, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal have questioned "repeated" paroles being given to the Dera chief.

In May, the high court acquitted Singh and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh, citing "tainted and sketchy" investigations in the matter.

A special CBI court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case. Singh had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.