Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim acquitted in murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati

Chhatrapati was shot at point-blank range at his residence on October 24, 2002. The killing came months after the newspaper published an anonymous letter describing how women who joined the dera as sadhvis were sexually harassed and raped by the dera chief.

On January 17, 2019, the special CBI court in Panchkula sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹50,000. The dera head and the other accused challenged the order in 2019, claiming they had been falsely implicated.

Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year sentence in two rape cases from 2017 and is lodged in Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak. However, in May 2024, the high court acquitted him in the 2002 murder case of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh. He is also named in several FIRs linked to the 2015 sacrilege incidents that are still under investigation in Punjab.