Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was released on a month-long parole from the Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak on Tuesday, The Indian Express reported.

For the first time since being convicted in 2017 for raping two disciples, the religious leader will stay at the dera’s headquarters in Haryana’s Sirsa for 10 days before moving to the sect’s Baghpat ashram in Uttar Pradesh. He has lived in Baghpat earlier while out on parole.

Singh was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the dera’s Sirsa headquarters. In 2021, he and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Ranjit Singh, a former manager in the sect.

Singh’s paroles and furloughs have often coincided with elections in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, where many of his followers reside. The latest has come a week ahead of Assembly elections in Delhi which is scheduled for February 5.

In October, Singh was granted a 20-day parole ahead of the Haryana Assembly elections.

He was released three times in 2022, including a 21-day furlough in February weeks before the Punjab Assembly elections. He also had parole from October 15 to November 25 that year, coinciding with the Adampur bye-poll that was won by Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Bhavya Bishnoi.

In 2023, Singh was released on a 30-day parole during the Haryana panchayat elections, in which most BJP-backed candidates emerged victorious. Singh was also released from November 21 to December 13 that year, during the Rajasthan Assembly elections, which saw the BJP win 115 out of 200 seats, defeating Congress with 70 seats.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha and Haryana Assembly elections, the sect reportedly supported the BJP, contributing to the party’s strong performance. However, after Singh’s 2017 conviction, the sect did not endorse any party in the 2019 elections, where the BJP still won the Lok Sabha polls and formed a coalition government in Haryana with the Jannayak Janata Party.

Earlier this year, Singh was released from January 19 to March 10. During the Lok Sabha elections, his son-in-law’s father, Harminder Jassi, a three-time Congress MLA, joined the BJP in May. The BJP and Congress each won five seats in Haryana, with Congress securing Sirsa by nearly three lakh votes.

Prison authorities maintain that Singh has not been given special treatment and has only utilised temporary release provisions available to all convicts, The Indian Express reported. Official data shows that in 2023, out of 5,832 convicts in Haryana’s jails, 2,801 were temporarily released, including 2,007 on parole and 794 on furlough.