Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, a Sirsa-based sect with followers in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Sikhs know him for his 2007 imitation of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, which Sri Akal Takht Sahib treated as beadbi, and for the 2015 pardon and its withdrawal, which a Punjab police chargesheet places at the start of the sequence that ended in the Bargari sacrilege and the firings at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura. He is in jail for rape, and has been released on parole or furlough 17 times since 2017.

Who he is. He was born on 15 August 1967 in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar district. Unlike his parents, he did not follow Sikhism (The Quint). In 1990, aged 23, he was chosen by Shah Satnam Singh as his successor and became the dera's third head. The dera, founded in 1948, says it has about 60 million followers. Its political wing backed the BJP in the 2014 Haryana election and was dissolved in March 2023.

Key moments

• 13 May 2007: at Salabatpura, Bathinda, he allegedly dresses as Guru Gobind Singh Ji in a pink robe. Clashes between his followers and Sikhs follow in Punjab and Haryana, and at least three people are reported killed. The Akal Takht issues a hukamnama against the dera, which The Tribune describes as excommunicating him. In 2014 police file a cancellation report in the case registered against him; the complainant says a fake affidavit was used.
• 24 September 2015: the Panj Singh Sahiban (the five Sikh high priests, as the press calls them) led by Giani Gurbachan Singh exonerate him after a written apology.
• 16 October 2015: after strong resentment among Sikhs they withdraw the pardon (The Tribune's report on the chargesheet gives 17 October). The Punjab SIT's chargesheet in the Kotkapura firing case records the pardon, its withdrawal, the ban on his film, the sacrilege at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari, and the firings at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan.
• 25 August 2017: a CBI special court at Panchkula convicts him of raping two women followers. On 28 August he is sentenced to 20 years. More than 30 people die in violence by his followers.
• 19 October 2018: Giani Gurbachan Singh steps down and apologises to the Panth for the pardon. On 8 December 2025 the Akal Takht pronounces tankhah on him over it.
• January 2019: life sentence for conspiracy in the 2002 murder of Sirsa journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, whose paper had published the anonymous letter. On 7 March 2026 the High Court acquits him and keeps two co-accused convicted. On 10 August 2026 the Supreme Court agrees to hear the journalist's son's plea, with a final hearing listed for November.
• 29 February 2024: the High Court says Haryana must not consider further parole without its permission. On 9 August 2024 it disposes of the SGPC's petition and says release pleas must be decided without “arbitrariness or favouritism or discrimination”. A furlough follows that month.
• 28 May 2024: the High Court acquits him and four others of the 2002 murder of dera manager Ranjit Singh, calling the CBI probe “tainted and sketchy”.
• 25 August 2026: released for 21 days, which ETV Bharat counts as his 17th release since 2017. It notes that each has been linked, or perceived to be linked, to elections or major events.

Remembered for. For Sikh institutions the 2015 pardon became a lasting wound: in 2024 the Jathedar asked the 2015 jathedars to explain the reversal. In the courts the 20-year rape sentence stands, while the High Court has overturned both murder convictions; the Chhatrapati family has taken its case to the Supreme Court.