Manohar Lal Khattar said it is for the law to decide what liberties one can exercise while on parole
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who had a few days ago denied any role in the parole granted to Dera Sirsa chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, on Monday said it was for the law to decide what all liberties one can exercise while on parole.
His statement comes in the backdrop of Ram Rahim, convicted for serious offences, holding religious discourses online from his Barnawa ashram in Uttar Pradesh after getting parole last week.
These discourses have been attended by scores of his followers, including many BJP leaders from Haryana.
"I am saying it is for the law to see...People on parole have even held political rallies," Khattar said when a reporter asked him for a comment on the matter.
The veiled reference about holding rallies while on parole is being seen as a dig at former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, who had in the last assembly polls did so. "Did anyone object then?" Khattar sought to know.
When asked why the state government had been maintaining silence over the matter, the chief minister said, "I don't need to say anything as the law will take its own course." Khattar said the jail manual makes a clear mention of what can and what cannot be allowed to a person on parole and that the agencies concerned are asked for an opinion before giving the special relief to an inmate. "The government does not have anything to say," he added.
"He (Ram Rahim) has been convicted of serious charges and is undergoing prison sentence. If he has been granted parole, it must have happened in accordance with the jail manual. The prison officials would have briefed him on what he can or cannot do," Khattar said.
The decision to grant parole to the controversial leader of a sect ahead of the bypoll at Adampur in Haryana on November 3 and panchayat elections has triggered a furore.
Ram Rahim, who is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, is out on a 40-day parole.
He was also among the five people convicted last year of hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager, in 2002.
In 2019, he and three others were convicted of murdering a journalist more than 16 years ago.
In February, he was granted three weeks' furlough ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)