The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, in the 2002 murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.

The verdict was delivered on Saturday by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Vikram Aggarwal.

The bench allowed Ram Rahim’s appeal and set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed on him by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Panchkula in January 2019.

While granting relief to Ram Rahim Singh, the High Court upheld the convictions of three other accused in the case.

Chhatrapati was shot outside his residence in Sirsa, Haryana, in October 2002. He ran a local newspaper titled Poora Sach and had earlier published an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of female followers at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa.

Journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati died a few weeks after the attack due to his injuries. The case was first registered by the local police and was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2006. During its investigation, the CBI named Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh as a conspirator in the murder.

Ram Rahim’s lawyer Jitender Khurana confirmed the acquittal on Saturday. However, the Dera chief will remain in jail for now. He is currently lodged in Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, Haryana, where he is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2017 for raping two of his followers.

Reacting to the verdict, the journalist’s son Anshul Chhatrapati said the decision was a setback for the family. He added that they would challenge the High Court’s ruling in the Supreme Court and hoped that the CBI would also file an appeal.

This is the second time the Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Ram Rahim in a major 2002 murder case linked to the Dera. In May 2024, the court had also cleared him and four others in the murder of former sect manager Ranjit Singh, pointing to flaws in the investigation.