Gurugram: Sunil Sangwan, whose tenure as Sunaria jail superintendent saw rape and murder convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim released six times on parole or furlough, has joined the BJP. He is likely to contest the 5 October Haryana assembly polls from Charkhi Dadri.
He is the son of former minister Satpal Sangwan, who left the Congress two months ago to join the BJP.
Such was the haste to ensure his induction into the BJP Monday that the Haryana government on Sunday expedited the process to accept his application for voluntary retirement from the post of superintendent at the Gurugram district jail.
The director general (DG) of prisons sent an email to all jail superintendents in the state Sunday, directing them to issue ‘no-due’ certificates the same day. The DG’s letter said: “Sunil Sangwan, Superintendent Jail, District Jail, Gurugram, has requested for voluntary retirement. It is therefore requested to send the No Due Certificate in favour of Sh. Sunil Sangwan, Superintendent Jail. Gurugram, by 4 PM.” After “4 pm”, the words “today before evening positively”, were scribbled with a pen.
The BJP had fielded wrestler Babita Phogat from Charkhi Dadri in the 2019 Haryana assembly elections. However, she came in third after polling 24,786 votes (19.59 percent vote share), followed by Satpal Sangwan, who contested as a Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate and polled 29,577 votes (23.38 percent of the vote share).
Babita Phogat has already begun her campaign for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections.
विधानसभा क्षेत्र #चरखी_दादरी के विभिन्न गांवों में अपने सभी वरिष्ठ जनों,माताओं/बहनों का कुशल क्षेम जाना और सभी का स्नेहपूर्ण आशीर्वाद प्राप्त किया।
📍#चरखी_दादरी pic.twitter.com/br1X3M0fsU
— Babita Phogat (@BabitaPhogat) August 31, 2024
Sunil served in Sunaria jail for 5 years
Though official records mention his first name as Sunil, he writes “Suneel Sangwan” on his Facebook page.
He has two children — a daughter and a son — both of whom are captains in the Army.
Sangwan had been in government service for over 22 years, he joined the Haryana Prisons Department in 2002. He has served as the superintendent of several jails, including the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where he served for five years. It was the same jail where Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh was serving a sentence for raping two of his women disciples and murdering a journalist, Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
Currently out of jail for 21 days on furlough, Ram Rahim Singh has been in the news for his repeated paroles and furloughs.
Of the 10 occasions in which Ram Rahim Singh was on parole or furlough, six were when Sangwan was superintendent of the jail where the Dera chief was kept in custody.
Ram Rahim Singh’s releases include a one-day emergency parole on 24 October 2000, a one-day emergency parole on 21 May 2021, a 21-day furlough ahead of the 2022 Punjab assembly elections from 7 to 28 February, a 30-day parole ahead of the 2022 Haryana municipal elections from 17 June to 16 July, a 40-day parole ahead of the 2022 Adampur assembly byelection from 15 October to 25 November, and a 40-day parole from 21 January to 3 March 2023 ahead of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir consecration ceremonies.
The Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act 2022 empowers a jail superintendent to recommend cases of prisoners for parole or furlough to the district magistrate, but the order of release is issued by the competent authority alone, which could be the deputy commissioner or divisional commissioner, depending on the prisoner’s sentence.
Satpal has changed parties over the years
Satpal Sangwan resigned from his position as sub-divisional officer (SDO) in the telecom department before entering politics in 1996. He contested from the Charkhi Dadri seat as a candidate of Bansi Lal’s (known as the architect of modern Haryana, and former chief minister of the state) Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) and won.
Satpal considered former Bansi Lal his political mentor and was also close to him. Bansi Lal’s family is now with the BJP, and his political legacy is being carried forward by Kiran Choudhary, who is a BJP member in the Rajya Sabha.
Satpal became an MLA from Charkhi Dadri for the first time in 1996 on a HVP ticket and later contested several assembly elections.
In 2009, he won the assembly election on a Haryana Janhit Congress party ticket and became an MLA. After that, he became the cooperation minister in the Bhupinder Hooda government (2009 to 2014). In the 2014 Haryana assembly elections, he faced defeat on a Congress ticket.
In the 2019 Haryana assembly elections, when the Congress denied him a ticket, he joined the JJP and contested the assembly elections. In that election, he was defeated by Independent candidate Sombir Sangwan and came second.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
Also read: 3 mighty Lals shaped Haryana politics for decades. How BJP has co-opted their descendants