Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh changes adopted daughter Honeypreet's name to 'Ruhani Didi'

New Delhi, Oct 26: Controversial spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who has been granted 40-day parole has announced that his adopted 'daughter' Honeypreet will now be known as 'Ruhani Didi'.

It may be recalled that the self-styled godman was convicted in 2017 for raping his two disciples and was sent to jail for 20 years.

''Our daughter is called Honeypreet. Since everyone calls her 'didi', it causes confusion as everyone is 'didi'. So we have now named her 'Ruhani Didi' & modernised it to easy to pronounce, 'Ruh Di','' Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was quoted by news agency ANI.

For the unversed, Honeypreet, whose real name is Priyanka Taneja, hails from Fatehpur near Hisar in Haryana. She was reportedly given the name 'Honeypreet' after her marriage to a Dera follower from Sirsa, one Vishwas Gupta in 1999.

According to reports, when Honeypreet complained to Singh about pressure from her in-laws seeking dowry, Ram Rahim Singh adopted her as his daughter in 2009 and Vishwas as his son-in-law. This gave a big boost to Gupta's business. However, this did not last long as Gupta soon fell out with Ram Rahim and sought judicial custody of his wife from the Dera chief in 2011. Gupta also filed a case against the Dera chief for sexually exploiting Honeypreet. Later, he withdrew the complaint on the basis of an out-of-court settlement.

Ram Rahim also quashed rumours of a change of leadership at the Dera Sachcha Sauda and said that he would remain its head.

The Dera chief issued both the statements while addressing Saad Sangat at the Dera in Baghpat.

He is staying at Barnawa Ashram after getting parole from Suneria Jail in Haryana. For the past several days Ram Rahim has been holding online discourses from his Barnawa ashram in UP, which have been attended by scores of his followers including many BJP leaders from Haryana too.

The dera chief is holding only online 'satsangs' from the dera's Barnawa ashram in Baghpat. Ram Rahim was last year also convicted along with four others for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a dera manager.

He, along with three others, were convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.