Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of jail on Tuesday after being granted a 21-day furlough, reported Hindustan Times. This is the 17th time he has been released from prison since he was convicted in a rape case in August 2017.Singh is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak for raping two of his women disciples. During the furlough, he will stay at the headquarters of his organisation in Sirsa district.This is his third consecutive temporary release during which he has been allowed to stay at the Sirsa headquarters, NDTV reported. At other times, he stayed at his organisation’s ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat.With the latest 21-day furlough, Singh has exhausted his annual entitlement of 10 weeks of parole and three weeks of furlough under the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act.The law allows prisoners a total of 10 weeks of parole in a calendar year, which can be taken in two parts, along with up to three weeks of furlough that must be availed in a single stretch.In February 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court told the Haryana government that Singh could not be granted parole without its permission. This came a month after Singh was released for 50 days, which was his seventh parole in 24 months and ninth in four years.In August 2024, the High Court said that the application for temporary release filed by Singh will be decided by competent authorities as per the provisions of the 2022 Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners Temporary Release Act without “favouritism or arbitrariness”.The bench left the decision on Singh’s application for furlough to the Haryana Prisons Department.In May, Singh was granted a 30-day parole and he returned to Sunaria jail on June 26. In January, he was released on a 40-day parole.In 2025, he was granted 40 days’ parole in August to celebrate his birthday, which followed by a 21-day furlough in April 2025 and 30-day parole in January 2025, ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.While a furlough can be given without any specific reason after a prisoner has served a stipulated period of time in prison, parole is based on an urgent demand or need.Singh was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera’s Sirsa headquarters.In 2021, he and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of a former manager of his sect. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted him in the murder case in May 2024.Edited by Sneha.