The arrest of spiritual guru Asaram Bapu on sexual harassment charges notwithstanding, his disciples and followers still repose their unflinching faith in him as is evident in Bhubaneswar.
large numbers of devotees, including high-profile personalities and top bureaucrats, turn up at Bapu’s ashram at Khandagiri everyday to worship him. A pair of wooden slippers of Bapu is placed in the ashram’s prayer hall which the devotees offer flowers.
While the ashram inmates organise satsang, bhajans and prayers in Bapu’s name every day, special prayers are arranged every Sunday where more numbers of devotees throng the ashram to participate en masse.
“We know what our guru is. He has not done anything wrong. It is a well-orchestrated conspiracy against him. Attempts have been made to hurt our religious sentiments by defaming the Indian saints since ages. The reports published in the media are stage-managed by some overseas organisations,” said a Bapu devotee.
It may be pointed out that the 74-year-old religious preacher, accused of sexually assaulting a minor, was arrested by the Jodhpur police from Indore on September 1, 2013.
The 16-year-old schoolgirl, who studied at Asaram’s ashram in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara and stayed in a girls’ hostel there, had made a complaint at a police station in Delhi on August 20 which the spiritual leader has since then denied.
Though the Odisha Government is aware that the Bapu ashram has come up in an encroached Government land and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has received a number of allegations in this regard, there has been no action till date.
Apart from this ashram, more than 400 ashrams and mutts have come up in Government lands on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. locals demand a thorough investigation into the modus operandi of these mutts and ashrams.