Dera chief convicted: Khattar govt had been ‘granting favours’ to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was convicted in a rape case today, has been receiving favours from the Manohar Lal Khattar government of Haryana earlier.

Just three months back, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced tax exemption for six months on movie ‘Jattu Engineer’ featuring Ram Rahim Singh.

Khattar had announced the tax exemption at an event in Karnal in May.

Earlier, the chief minister had started a cleanliness drive along with the dera chief.

Also, the state’s Health and Sports minister Anil Vij had donated Rs 50 lakh from his discretionary fund to the sect for promoting rural games.

At a sporting event organised by the dera at Sirsa in the past, Vij had said, “Dera Sacha Sauda is already promoting sports for a long time and now BJP government will promote all sports related activities by making 20 Olympic Nurseries.”

Vij had added, “He (Ram Rahim) is encouraging the games. Since the schools are also encouraging games here, I would like to donate Rs 50 lakh from my discretionary fund.”

Notably, all the games played at the dera academy have been created by Gurmeet Ram Rahim himself and are not played at national or international level.

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