Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Cleared of 2002 Killing of Ram Chander Chhatrapati; Two Co-Accused Remain Convicted
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2002 murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. A bench led by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal overturned his life imprisonment conviction handed down by a special CBI court in January 2019, while upholding guilty verdicts against at least two other accused.
Chhatrapati was shot at his residence on October 24, 2002, months after his newspaper published an anonymous letter alleging sexual abuse by the dera chief. The detailed judgment is expected later today.
Ram Rahim continues to serve a separate 20-year sentence in two 2017 rape cases at Sunaria jail, Rohtak. He was most recently on 40-day parole in January 2026.
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