The special CBI court in Panchkula convicted Dera Sacha Suda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and four others in the murder case of one of his disciples, reported ANI. The quantum sentence for the murder charges will be pronounced by the court on October 12. Singh is already serving a sentence in a rape case.

Ranjit Singh, a former follower of Gurmeet Ram Rahim, was killed by four assailants on July 10, 2002, at his native Khanpur Kolian village in Kurukshetra. According to CBI, he was shot because Ram Rahim suspected that he was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter highlighting the sexual exploitation of female disciples on the Dera premises.

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Ram Rahim Singh, a self-acclaimed godman was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in August 2017 for raping two of his women followers and the murder of a journalist. He is currently lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail serving a life term.

Ram Rahim has been accused of a total of three crimes that took place in the period 2002-03. The Dera chief has already been convicted in the case of sexual exploitation of female disciples and the second of the murder of a journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. The third case is of Ranjit Singh’s murder in which he was pronounced guilty earlier today.

Earlier this month, the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed a plea seeking transfer of trial in the Ranjit Singh murder case terming the allegations imaginary and based on surmises and conjectures.

The high court bench said that the trial cannot be transferred on mere apprehension and that apprehension must be reasonable and not imaginary. Thus, the trial court was granted the power to pronounce judgment, which it exercised on Friday convicting Ram Rahim and four others in the Ranjit Singh murder case.