Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who once presided over a Rs 10,000 crore empire and controlled the lives of millions of his followers, was on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a Jodhpur court for raping a teenage girl in his ashram five years ago. The court sentenced two other convicts Shilpi and Sharad to 20 years in jail, while acquitting two others, Prakash and Shiva.
Special court judge Madhusudan Sharma’s verdict — even as the debate over sexual violence, particularly the rape of minors across the country is raging — was read out in the Jodhpur Central Jail where Asaram, 77, has been kept for over four years. Hearing the sentence, Asaram broke down.
To avoid the repeat of violence by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim following his convicted in a rape case last August, police stepped up security around Asaram’s ashrams.
Arguments for the quantum of sentencing were earlier held inside the heavily fortified jail premises, where the trial court delivered its verdict in accordance with the direction of the Rajasthan High Court.
Asaram is also accused in another rape case in Gujarat along with son Narayan Sai, who is also in jail. Three of the witnesses in the case are already dead.
The chargesheet against Asaram and the four other accused was filed by the police on November 6, 2013 under various sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, the Juvenile Justice Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The teenager had said in her complaint that Asaram had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013. The
16-year-old girl from Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was studying at Asaram’s ashram in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.
“We had complete faith in the judiciary and are happy that we got justice,” her father told journalists after the verdict. The family, he said, was living in constant terror and their business was hit.
Apprehending a threat to law and order, the Centre had asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana Governments to tighten security and deploy additional forces as the three States have a large number of Asaram followers. The Union Home Ministry had sent an advisory fearing a repeat of the violence in Punjab and Haryana that followed the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in August last year, when several people were killed. He was convicted in a 2002 rape case and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Asaram was arrested in Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. He was under judicial custody since September 2, 2013. Asaram is also facing a rape case in Surat in Gujarat in which the Supreme Court earlier this month gave five weeks time to the prosecution to complete the trial.
Asaram unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications, of which six were rejected by the trial court, three by the Rajasthan High Court and three by the Supreme Court.
In 2008, two pre-teens --- cousins Dipesh and Abhishek Vaghela, who lived in Asaram’s gurukul in Motera --- were found dead on the riverbed near his ashram. The parents of the two cousins alleged that they were killed in Asaram’s ashram, where they claimed black magic was practised. The Rajasthan CID had in 2009 booked seven followers of Asaram in the death case. He was also accused of grabbing land for building his ashrams in Surat and Ahmedabad.
