The Punjab and Haryana high court has acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2002 murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
The dera chief was initially convicted by a special CBI court in 2019, but a high court bench set aside the conviction while upholding the guilty verdict against two other accused.
Chhatrapati was shot at point-blank range at his residence in 2002, months after his newspaper published a letter describing how women were sexually harassed and raped by the dera chief.
Ram Rahim is currently serving a 20-year sentence in two rape cases and has been linked to several FIRs related to sacrilege incidents.
