<p>Chandigarh: The <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/punjab-and-haryana-high-court">Punjab and Haryana High Court</a> on Tuesday acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/gurmeet-ram-rahim-singh">Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh</a> and four others in the murder case of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh in 2002.</p><p>The Sirsa-headquartered sect chief, who is also serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples, is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana.</p><p>"The high court has acquitted him and four others in the Ranjit Singh murder case," Dera chief's lawyer Jitender Khurana said.</p><p>He said the arguments in the case had got over earlier and the matter came up for pronouncement of verdict before the high court on Tuesday.</p>.No further parole to rape convict Ram Rahim without its permission: High Court to Haryana govt.<p>Khurana said a division bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Lalit Batra pronounced the decision on the appeals filed by Ram Rahim and four others who had been convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula, Haryana, in October 2021.</p><p>The court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case of Ranjit Singh. He had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.</p><p>Ranjit Singh, who was also a follower of the sect, was shot dead on July 10, 2002, at Khanpur Kolian village in Haryana's Kurukshetra.</p><p>He was allegedly murdered for his suspected role in the circulation of an anonymous letter, which narrated how women were being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters.</p><p>According to the CBI charge sheet earlier, the Dera chief believed that Ranjit Singh was behind the circulation of the anonymous letter and hatched a conspiracy to kill him.</p><p>In 2017, Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for raping two disciples after which he was lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail.</p><p>The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.</p>
<p>Chandigarh: The <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/punjab-and-haryana-high-court">Punjab and Haryana High Court</a> on Tuesday acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/gurmeet-ram-rahim-singh">Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh</a> and four others in the murder case of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh in 2002.</p><p>The Sirsa-headquartered sect chief, who is also serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples, is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana.</p><p>"The high court has acquitted him and four others in the Ranjit Singh murder case," Dera chief's lawyer Jitender Khurana said.</p><p>He said the arguments in the case had got over earlier and the matter came up for pronouncement of verdict before the high court on Tuesday.</p>.No further parole to rape convict Ram Rahim without its permission: High Court to Haryana govt.<p>Khurana said a division bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Lalit Batra pronounced the decision on the appeals filed by Ram Rahim and four others who had been convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula, Haryana, in October 2021.</p><p>The court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the nearly 20-year-old murder case of Ranjit Singh. He had been held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with his co-accused.</p><p>Ranjit Singh, who was also a follower of the sect, was shot dead on July 10, 2002, at Khanpur Kolian village in Haryana's Kurukshetra.</p><p>He was allegedly murdered for his suspected role in the circulation of an anonymous letter, which narrated how women were being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters.</p><p>According to the CBI charge sheet earlier, the Dera chief believed that Ranjit Singh was behind the circulation of the anonymous letter and hatched a conspiracy to kill him.</p><p>In 2017, Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for raping two disciples after which he was lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail.</p><p>The Dera chief and three others were also convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.</p>