Rape Convict Ram Rahim 'Tortured' In Rohtak Jail, Claim Dera Sacha Sauda Supporters

Rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is being tortured in Haryana jail, his supporters claimed in a plea filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday. The Dera Sacha Sauda supporters have claimed that Ram Rahim is being tortured both physically and mentally. There has been three attempts to attack him, the plea claimed. The Dera supporters say that Ram Rahim is not allowed to meet his followers. In August 2017, the Dera chief was sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping two women. A special CBI court in Panchkula had in January this year also sentenced him and three others to life imprisonment for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago.

Earlier in January, Gurmeet Ram Rahim was sentence to life imprisonment for the murder of a journalist over 16 years ago. The Dera Sacha Sauda chief and the three others convicted in the case had appeared before the court through video conferencing. "All four have been sentenced to life imprisonment," CBI counsel H P S Verma said. On January 11, special CBI Court judge Jagdeep Singh had convicted the four men for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati in 2002. All the four were convicted under section 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Ram Rahim appeared through video conferencing from Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where he is already serving a 20-year-sentence in a rape case.

The journalist was killed in Haryana's Sirsa in October 2002 after his newspaper published an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of women by the godman at the Dera headquarters in the same town. Ram Rahim was named as the main conspirator in the case. Chhatrapati's family approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2003, seeking the transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The investigation was later handed over to the CBI which filed the chargesheet in July 2007.

In July this year, Gurmeet Ram Rahim withdrew his parole plea, days after filing it saying that he wanted to attend to his agricultural fields. The sect head is currently lodged at Sunaria jail in Rohtak after being convicted in two rape cases and murder of a journalist. Following his application for the parole for 42 days, the jail superintendent had written to the Sirsa district administration. In a letter dated June 18, the official had sought a report whether releasing Gurmeet on parole would be feasible or not.