Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim acquitted in 2002 journalist murder case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 murder case of a journalist, sect head's lawyer Jitender Khurana said on Saturday.

The court acquitted the Dera chief more than seven years after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

"The high court division bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu on Saturday acquitted him in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati," Khurana said.

The division bench passed the order while hearing appeals challenging the 2019 conviction in the case, he said.

"The bench, however, has upheld the conviction of three others in the case," Khurana added.

The journalist's son, Anshul Chhatrapati, said he will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Ram Rahim and three others were convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in January 2019 for the murder of the journalist in Haryana's Sirsa.

Chhatrapati was shot outside his house in October 2002 after his newspaper 'Poora Sach' published an anonymous letter narrating the alleged sexual exploitation of women followers at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa.

The journalist later succumbed to injuries, and a case was registered in which Ram Rahim was named as a conspirator. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2006.

The Dera chief is currently lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail. He is serving a 20-year jail term, given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples.

Anshul Chhatrapati termed the acquittal as a "setback" for his family.

"It is a setback for us, but whatever legal remedies we have, we will use them. We will challenge this verdict in the Supreme Court. We expect that the investigating agency, CBI, would also challenge the high court verdict," he said.

In May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had acquitted Ram Rahim and four others in the 2002 murder of the sect's former manager Ranjit Singh, citing "tainted and sketchy" investigations into the matter.

Earlier, a special CBI court had sentenced them to life imprisonment in the case. It held Ram Rahim guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy with the co-accused.