The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2002 murder case of a journalist, sect head's lawyer Jitender Khurana said on Saturday.

The court acquitted the Dera chief more than seven years after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

"The court has acquitted him in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati," Khurana said.

Singh and three others were convicted in 2019 for the murder of the journalist in Haryana's Sirsa. Chhatrapati was shot outside his house in October 2002 after his newspaper 'Poora Sach' published an anonymous letter narrating the alleged sexual exploitation of women followers at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa.

Singh is also serving a 20-year jail term, given in 2017 for raping two of his disciples. Following his conviction in the case, he was lodged in the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak.