‘Don't know if a person on parole can sing or not’: Haryana Home Minister on Ram Rahim

Home Minister of Haryana, Anil Vij said that has no idea if a person on parole can sing or not. He said this in the context of Ram Rahim’s music video launch on Diwali.

Image Credit: ANI

Gurugram: Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Thursday said he has no idea if a person on parole can sing or not, referring to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who released a music video on Diwali. When asked about Ram Rahim's recent video, Vij said, "He has been given parole by the jail administration under the jail manuals and he is in the ashram of Uttar Pradesh. It has to be seen in the jail manual whether one, who is on parole, can sing or not. I don't know, he added". Interacting with media persons at the inauguration of the Haryana Police Housing Complex project at Bhondsi in Gurugram, Vij said, "This is the golden period of Haryana, in which systems have been changed. We have made everything transparent and many services have been made online." Ram Rahim, who is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, was granted parole for 40 days last week.

For the last few days, he has been holding online discourses from his Barnawa ashram in Uttar Pradesh. These discourses have been attended by scores of his followers, including many Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Haryana. Asked about Ram Rahim's parole at a press conference in New Delhi, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday said he had no role in it as jails have their own rules. The decision to grant Ram Rahim parole ahead of the Adampur bypoll in Haryana on November 3 and the panchayat elections has triggered a furore.