Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was released on a 21-day furlough by the Haryana government on Wednesday, The Times of India reported.

He has been out of prison for 142 days in the past year.

Singh was released from the Sunaria jail in Rohtak and left for the headquarters of his organisation in Sirsa district. This is the second time since his conviction in 2017 that Singh has been allowed to visit the place, the newspaper reported.

At other times that he has been released on parole or furlough, he stayed at his organisation’s ashram in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh.

Singh was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera headquarters.

In 2021, he and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of a former manager of his sect. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the murder case in May.

He was granted a 30-day parole in January, The Indian Express reported.

While a furlough can be given without any specific reason after a prisoner has served a stipulated period of time in prison, parole is based on an urgent demand or need. Singh has been granted either parole or furlough 13 times in the past four years.

In February 2024, the High Court had told the Haryana government that Singh could not be granted parole without its permission. This came a month after Singh was released for 50 days, which was his seventh parole in 24 months and ninth in four years.

In March 2023, the Punjab government had told the High Court that granting frequent parole to Singh may lead to law and order problems in the state.

In October, the High Court said that the application for temporary release filed by Singh will be decided by competent authorities as per the provisions of the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act without “favouritism or arbitrariness”.

The bench left the decision on Singh’s application for furlough to the Haryana Prisons Department.