Breaking- Ranjit Singh Murder Case: Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, 4 Others Sentenced To Life Imprisonment By CBI Court

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and 4 others have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the CBI Court, Panchkula today in the Ranjit Singh murder case. They were earlier convicted under Sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC in this case, and today, the order on their sentence was pronounced.The other convicts who have been sentenced to LI today are Avtar Singh, Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, and Sabdil Singh. One of the accused, Inder Sain, had died during the trial in 2020.Importantly, the Special CBI Court judge Sushil Garg had, on October 8, pronounced Gurmeet Ram Rahim and above-named 4 persons guilty of murdering former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, who was also a follower of the sect.It may be noted that Gurmeet Ram Rahim is already serving sentence for the offence of rape, and now, he has been convicted of the murder of his disciple, Ranjeet Singh. As per the CBI, Ranjit Singh was shot dead on July 10, 2002, since he suspected that the deceased was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter, highlighting the cases of sexual exploitation of his female followers by Dera Chief.Significantly, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had, earlier this month dismissed a plea filed by the son of Ranjit Singh seeking transfer of the murder trial against Ram Rahim Singh pending before the special CBI judge, Panchkula.Punjab & Haryana High Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Transfer Of Murder Case Against Gurmeet Ram Rahim SinghEssentially, the son of the deceased Ranjeet Singh (murdered by Ram Rahim Singh) had sought the transfer of the case to another CBI court in Punjab, Haryana, or Chandigarh on the ground that the presiding judge conducting the trial was unduly influenced by the accused through a public prosecutor of CBI.However, dismissing his plea, the Bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan had opined that the apprehensions of the petitioner weren't reasonable, but were based upon surmises and conjectures.The dismissal of the plea had paved way for the CBI court to pronounce the verdict which was earlier stayed by the High Court as it had restrained the special CBI judge, Panchkula from pronouncing the verdict on August 26.The Special CBI judge Panchkula, Sushil Kumar Garg, was set to pronounce verdict on August 26, however, the Bench of Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan had restrained the Court from doing so.Importantly, while dismissing the transfer plea and noting that the trial of the matter is at the stage of pronouncement of judgment, the Court observed thus:"The petitioner in garb of transfer petition cannot be permitted to have bench of his choice or to get result of trial as per his wishes. With the advancement of technology and activism of social media, the allegation leveled by such litigants needs to be scrutinized very carefully. On asking of apprehensive litigant, transfer of trial at fag end would result in browbeating the Judge and interference in fair administration of justice."

Breaking- Ranjit Singh Murder Case: Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, 4 Others Sentenced To Life Imprisonment By CBI Court

Sparsh Upadhyay

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