Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: Jail officer who gave Ram Rahim 6 paroles on BJP's 1st list of candidates
Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: BJP on Wednesday released its first list of 67 candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections 2024. The list also includes Sunil Sangwan, a former jail officer who granted Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Ram Rahim parole six times.
Sangwan will run for the Dadri seat, which former BJP leader Somveer Sangwan won as an independent in 2019.
Somveer Sangwan was one of three independent MLAs who backed the Congress during the turmoil that followed the BJP's Manohar Lal Khattar's resignation as Chief Minister before the Lok Sabha election. He is likely to join the Congress if he receives the Dadri ticket.
Ram Rahim was granted a 21-day furlough last month, his 10th in the last four years.
Political watchers and critics of the ruling BJP were not surprised by the timing. Rahim's temporary releases have generally occurred days before state or local elections.
The Dera chief, who has a big following in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, received a 50-day parole in January, only weeks before the general election. He was also released for three weeks in November, just before the Rajasthan elections.
In 2022, he was released from jail three times: for 21 days in February during the Punjab polls, for a month in June during the Haryana civic body elections, and for 40 days in October during the Haryana by-elections.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year sentence for raping two of his disciples and is being held in the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak district.
- With inputs from agencies
