The case has been tagged with another appeal filed by the complainant, the father of the deceased, who also challenged the acquittal.
New Delhi, January 3: The Supreme Court has issued a notice to self-styled godman and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, along with four others, in response to a plea by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging their acquittal in the 2002 murder case of Ranjit Singh, a former manager of the sect.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar sought responses from Ram Rahim and the other accused. The case has been tagged with another pending appeal filed by the complainant, the father of the deceased, who also challenged the acquittal.
The court directed that the matter be listed before a bench headed by Justice Bela Trivedi, which had earlier issued a notice in the complainant's appeal. “Issue notice and tag with the pending special leave petition (SLP) to be listed before the bench presided by Justice Bela Trivedi,” the bench ordered.
Background of the Case
Ranjit Singh, the former Dera manager, was murdered on July 10, 2002, while working in his fields in Kurukshetra district, Haryana. The High Court had ordered a CBI investigation into the case on November 10, 2003, after it was initially registered at the Sadar police station in Thanesar, Kurukshetra.
The trial court had sentenced Ram Rahim and four others—Avtar Singh, Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, and Sabdil Singh—to life imprisonment on October 18, 2021. However, when the matter reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the court acquitted the accused, citing that the CBI had failed to establish a clear motive and that the prosecution’s case was “shrouded in doubts.”
One of the accused, Inder Sain, passed away during the trial in 2020.
CBI’s Allegations Against Ram Rahim
According to the CBI chargesheet, Ram Rahim suspected Ranjit Singh of distributing an anonymous letter among Dera followers. The letter accused Ram Rahim of sexually exploiting female disciples at the Dera, which later became the basis for a rape case registered against him in 2002.
Ram Rahim is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Sunaria Jail, Rohtak, Haryana, after being convicted in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.
