On May 26, 2026, at 6:34 in the morning, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of Sunaria Jail in Rohtak. He got into a four-vehicle police convoy and drove to his Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa. He will stay there for 30 days. Then he will return to jail. Then, at some point, he will walk out again.
This was his 16th release from prison since his conviction in 2017. Sixteen times. A man sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping two women disciples has now walked out of jail sixteen times in nine years. He has spent approximately 435 days outside prison. That is nearly 14 months. That is more than a year of freedom carved out of a sentence that was meant to keep him locked up for two decades.
Do the math. Out of roughly 3,195 days since his conviction, Ram Rahim has spent about 13.6% of his sentence period outside jail. For a man convicted of rape. By a special CBI court. Whose verdict triggered riots across an entire state. Whose followers set buses on fire and attacked hospitals when he was found guilty. That man has spent one out of every seven days of his sentence as a free man.
The Conviction They Keep Paroling
For those who need reminding, here is who Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is. He is the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda, a spiritual sect headquartered in Sirsa, Haryana, with millions of followers across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and other northern states. For decades, he styled himself as a spiritual leader, a film star, a musician, and a social reformer. He released movies in which he played the hero. He held rallies that drew lakhs. He commanded a vote bank so large that political parties across the spectrum courted him before every election.
On August 25, 2017, a special CBI court in Panchkula convicted him of raping two female disciples between 1999 and 2001 inside the Dera’s Sirsa ashram. The women had written anonymous letters to the Prime Minister in 2002 describing systematic sexual exploitation. The case took 15 years to reach a verdict. When the conviction was announced, his followers rioted. At least 41 people were killed in the violence that engulfed Haryana. Curfew was imposed across multiple districts. The Army was deployed. Ram Rahim was sentenced to two consecutive 10-year terms of rigorous imprisonment, totalling 20 years.
In 2019, he was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati, who had published accounts of sexual abuse inside the Dera in 2002 and was shot dead months later. A separate life sentence was also handed down for the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh. However, in May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Ram Rahim in the Ranjit Singh murder case, citing “tainted and sketchy” investigations. And in March 2026, the same High Court acquitted him in the Chhatrapati murder case as well, overturning the life sentence.
The rape conviction and the 20-year sentence remain intact. But “intact” is a generous word for a sentence that has been interrupted sixteen times.
435 Days of Freedom, Mapped
Here is the record, stripped of any commentary. A 21-day furlough in February 2022, two weeks before the Punjab Assembly elections. A 30-day parole in June 2022. A 40-day parole in October 2022. A 40-day parole in January 2023. A 30-day parole in July 2023. A 21-day furlough in November 2023. A 50-day parole in January 2024. A 21-day furlough in August 2024. A 20-day parole on October 1, 2024, four days before the Haryana Assembly elections on October 5. A 30-day parole in January 2025, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections on February 5. A 21-day furlough in April 2025. A 40-day parole in August 2025. A 40-day parole in January 2026. And now, in May 2026, a 30-day parole. Sixteen releases. Four hundred and thirty-five days.
The legal basis is the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 2022, notified on April 11, 2022. Under this law, convicted prisoners can be granted regular parole for up to 10 weeks in a calendar year, which may be availed in two parts. Ram Rahim’s 30-day release in May 2026 reportedly exhausts his entire 10-week parole allowance for the year. His lawyers have consistently stated that these releases are a statutory right, granted for good prison conduct.
That is technically true. The law permits it. But the question is not whether the law permits it. The question is whether the law is being applied equally. As The Tribune has noted, most prisoners in Haryana are not granted parole “so smoothly and frequently,” even when the courts and authorities are flooded with requests. The Dera chief’s applications are processed with a speed and consistency that ordinary convicts do not experience. The law may be the same. The treatment is not.
The Calendar That Speaks for Itself
The timing of Ram Rahim’s releases has been pointed out by opposition parties, activists, and journalists so many times that it has almost become routine. But routine does not make it less damning.
February 2022: furlough granted two weeks before the Punjab elections. January 2024: 50-day parole, with the Lok Sabha elections approaching. October 2024: parole granted on October 1, four days before Haryana votes. January 2025: parole granted ahead of the February 5 Delhi elections. The Dera Sacha Sauda commands a vote bank that runs into millions across Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan. The Dera’s electoral influence has been acknowledged by political parties of every stripe. A parole release allows the Dera chief to return to his headquarters, address followers virtually, and reactivate the institutional machinery of the sect. He is barred from holding physical gatherings. But a virtual address from the Dera’s Sirsa headquarters, timed to an election season, carries its own weight.
The Haryana government, which has been led by the BJP since 2014, has granted every one of these releases through its administrative machinery. The government has not publicly addressed the timing pattern. It has been maintained that the releases are routine, statutory, and based on good conduct.
Two Murder Convictions. Two Acquittals. One Rape Sentence Remaining.
There is another dimension to this story that deserves attention. In 2019, Ram Rahim was convicted in two separate murder cases — the killing of journalist Ramchandra Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh. Both convictions carried life sentences. In May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the Ranjit Singh case. In March 2026, it acquitted him in the Chhatrapati case as well.
Ramchandra Chhatrapati was the editor of a local newspaper, Poora Sacch, in Sirsa. In 2002, he published an anonymous letter written by a former Dera follower describing the sexual abuse of women disciples inside the ashram. Months later, in October 2002, unidentified gunmen shot him outside his home. He died of his injuries in November 2002. A special CBI court convicted Ram Rahim and three others of the murder in 2019. The High Court’s acquittal in March 2026 overturned that conviction. The CBI has the option to appeal to the Supreme Court.
With both murder convictions overturned, the only sentence Ram Rahim is now serving is the 20-year term for rape. His earliest possible release date, accounting for parole and remission, is a calculation his legal team is almost certainly already making.
What This Case Tells Us
The Ram Rahim case is not, at its core, a story about one man. It is a story about what happens when political influence, institutional power, and a compliant administrative system converge around a convicted person. The law on parole exists for a reason. Temporary release is a legitimate part of the criminal justice system. It serves a rehabilitative function. But rehabilitation assumes that the convict is being treated like any other convict. When a rape convict with a 20-year sentence walks out of jail sixteen times in nine years, is escorted in a four-vehicle convoy, returns to the headquarters of a religious empire he still controls, and addresses millions of followers during election season — that is not rehabilitation. That is a parallel arrangement.
Meanwhile, the two women who were raped have not been named in a single one of these parole discussions. They are not consulted when his release is granted. Their voices are absent from the debate. The system that convicted their attacker has spent nine years finding reasons to let him out, one month at a time, while they live with what he did.
Twenty years. That was the sentence. Two decades of rigorous imprisonment for sexual assault. That is what the court decided. What the system has delivered instead is a sentence served in instalments, interrupted 16 times, totalling 435 days of freedom, timed conveniently around elections, in a state where the Dera’s vote bank still matters.
Twenty-year sentence. Sixteen exits. 435 days out. Do the math. And then ask yourself: whose sentence is this, really? The man who walks out every few months? Or the women who cannot?
References
- The Logical Indian — “Gurmeet Ram Rahim Granted 30-Day Parole, Marks 16th Release Since 2017 Conviction” (May 26, 2026). https://thelogicalindian.com
- Republic World — “16 Paroles, 435 Days Out Enjoying Parallel Freedom: Rape-Convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Walks Out Of Jail Once Again” (May 26, 2026). https://www.republicworld.com
- The Week — “Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh walks out of jail on parole for 16th time since conviction” (May 26, 2026). https://www.theweek.in
- Deccan Herald — “On 15th parole, Gurmeet Ram Rahim walks out of prison to stay at Sirsa Dera” (January 2026). https://www.deccanherald.com
- Tribune India — “Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim released from Rohtak jail on 40-day parole” (January 2024). https://www.tribuneindia.com
- Tribune India — “40-day parole over, Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim returns to Rohtak jail” (September 2025). https://www.tribuneindia.com
- Deccan Herald — “Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim granted 50-day parole” (January 2024). https://www.deccanherald.com
- Wikipedia — “Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.” https://en.wikipedia.org