In a setback to the CBI, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday acquitted the Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the Chhatrapati murder case.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagi and Justice Vikram Aggarwal pronounced the judgment on the appeals filed against the conviction.
While pronouncing the judgment, the Bench upheld the conviction and life sentence of the other three accused - Kuldeep, Nirmal, and Krishan Lal. Earlier, the CBI court had convicted all four accused in the case and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The CBI court in 2019 held the self-styled godman Ram Rahim and three others guilty of the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati in 2002.
Chhatrapati was shot dead in October 2002 outside his home after his newspaper 'Poora Sach' published the sexual exploitation of women by Ram Rahim at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa.
The case was handed over to the CBI in 2006.
Presently, Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year sentence for the rape of two female disciples. In 2024, the High Court acquitted him in the murder case of Dera manager Ranjith Singh.
Ram Rahim had accused the CBI and challenged the conviction before the HC, claiming that he had been falsely implicated by the officials in this case.
The counsel for Dera chief said in the affidavit that, "It is a matter of fact that the appellant was not at all named in the first charge sheet filed by the State Police in 2002. Krishan Lal was tortured by the CBI officials. The name of the Dera chief was thereafter included as an accused by way of revenge. The eyewitness version of the conspiracy was created by senior CBI officer, M Narayanan, for the present case in the form of Khatta Singh."
The HC had reserved its verdict in the matter in September last year.