Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been convicted of rape and murder, on Tuesday released a Punjabi video song about Diwali celebrations.

The song called Sadi Nit Diwali was launched on his YouTube channel and has garnered 42 lakh views in a day. The video shows Singh lighting lamps with two of his mentors, to whom he pays tributes in the lyrics.

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Currently, out on a 40-day parole, Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera headquarters in Haryana’s Sirsa district. In 2019, Ram Rahim and three others were convicted for murdering journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati in 2002. In 2021, he was convicted of conspiring to kill the Dera’s former manager Ranjit Singh, who was shot dead in 2002.

This is the third time Singh has been granted temporary release from prison this year. In June, the sect leader was released on month-long parole ahead of the Sangrur bye-election in Punjab. In February, he was granted a 21-day furlough ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections.

This time’s parole was granted ahead of the Adampur bye-poll on November 3 and Haryana panchayat elections on November 12.

On Tuesday, after launching the song, he held a virtual satsang, or a religious meet, where he said that imprisonment was a spiritual journey and that he was writing a book on it, NDTV reported.

He also told his followers that he has written and composed 800 such hymns which he will release soon, The Indian Express reported.

On October 20, he had hosted a virtual religious meeting, where several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Karnal Mayor Renu Bala Gupta, Deputy Mayor Naveen Kumar and senior Deputy Mayor Rajesh Aggi were present.