Gurmeet Ram Rahim is out on 40-day parole. (File)
New Delhi:
Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, whose packed calendar while on parole has become hugely controversial, today announced a new name for Honeypreet Insan, his “adopted daughter”.
Honeypreet would be known as “Ruhani didi” in future, declared Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence after being convicted for rape in 2017.
He also offered an abbreviated, “easy to pronounce” version of the name.
“Our daughter is called Honeypreet. Since everyone calls her ‘didi’, it causes confusion as everyone is ‘didi’. So we have now named her ‘Ruhani Didi’ and modernised it to an easy to pronounce ‘Ruh Di’,” he said, according to news agency ANI.
Days after Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s arrest, Honeypreet, originally Priyanka Taneja, was arrested over violence during protests by Dera supporters after Ram Rahim was declared guilty of raping two followers at his ashram in Sirsa, Haryana. As many as 38 people were killed in the violence, according to the police.
Honeypreet, now 41, once called herself “Papa’s Angel” on social media and has often defended her relationship with him. She was accused of trying to help the Dera chief escape and instigating rioting.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim is out on 40-day parole. He hosted a virtual Satsang last week.
He is also back to his obsession with blingy music videos. He released a Diwali song video on YouTube this week, 10 years after his memorable “Love Charger”. The video credits him with the music, lyrics, composition, and direction.
Ram Rahim’s outings from jail are well-timed, according to the opposition, which accuses Haryana’s ruling BJP of arranging his release before elections. Haryana is prepping for panchayat elections and assembly by-polls.
Earlier, the Dera chief was released on a month-long parole in June – ahead of elections to 46 civic bodies. In February, he was given three weeks’ furlough ahead of the Punjab election.
Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar told NDTV today: “I don’t want to say anything on this. Prisons have their own rules, and it will not be appropriate for me to say anything.”
The Dera Sacha Sauda, which describes itself as a social welfare and spiritual organization, was set up in 1948. The powerful sect claims 50 million followers across the world and has a network of centres across Punjab and Haryana with sizeable support from Dalits and backward castes. Ram Rahim has been heading the sect since 1990.
