India, March 7 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the October 2002 murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.

Chhatrapati was shot at point-blank range at his residence on October 24, 2002. The killing came months after the newspaper published an anonymous letter describing how women who joined the dera as sadhvis were sexually harassed and raped by the dera chief.

On January 17, 2019, the special CBI court in Panchkula sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs.50,000. The dera head and the other accused challenged the order in 2019, claiming they had been falsely implicated.

Ram Rahim is serving a 20-year sentence in t...