Chandigarh, September 19, 2017: The self-proclaimed godman and the chief of Dera Sacha Sauda sect who built an empire worth crores, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh will now be growing vegetables in jail. He will be paid Rs 20 for pruning trees eight hours a day.
There lies a small plot of vacant land, outside his Barrack, that measures about 900 sq yards. "He has been tasked to grow vegetables in this land," said KP Singh, director general of Haryana prisons department, mentions the IANS report.
The convicts are assigned some or the other work depending on their skills, the officials mentioned.
Mr Singh also stated, that Ram Rahim for now has been preparing the plot in order to start sowing the vegetables next week.
"He has already taken up his work," he added.
None of the skills that he used to build a whooping 800-acre campus were of any use to the jail. Whatever he produces now, however, will be used in the jail mess.
Dismissing all the reports mentioning Ram Rahim receives any special treatment, "It is (a) baseless and imaginary (report). No prisoner in jail is given any special treatment and that includes Ram Rahim," Mr. Singh said,
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"He is living in jail like any other ordinary inmate and he is living like a disciplined inmate. He is being provided the same food given to other prisoners."
He even called the media reports about the 50 year old's health baseless, "They just conducted a mock drill, but a section of media associated that to his health. He (Gurmeet) is healthy and doing fine," he said.
The state's top jail official denied the reports stating that Ram Rahim had asked to speak to Honeypreet Insaan, his adopted daughter.
Inmates are supposed to give a maximum of two phone numbers they can call. These phone numbers are first verified by the police and calls can be made only after the completion of the process.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in jail on August 28, for raping his two disciples. The 50 year old is lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail and is now known as prisoner number 1997.
-prepared by Samiksha Goel of NewsGram. Twitter @goel_samiksha