Kochi: Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect was acquitted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati murder case of 2002 on Saturday, media reports said.
A division bench overturned the verdict of a special CBI court in Panchkula in January 2019.
The journalist was shot outside his home in Haryana’s Sirsa, in October 2002. Chhatrapati had published an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of women at the Dera’s headquarters in Sirsa.
The case was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation which named Ram Rahim Singh as a conspirator.
The sect leader remains in custody at Sunaria jail in Rohtak, Haryana, where he is serving a 20-year sentence imposed in 2017 after being convicted of raping two disciples.
Chhatrapati’s son Anshul said the family will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.
In May 2024, he and four others were acquitted in murder of former sect manager Ranjit Singh.
Court acquits Rahim in murder case
