The killing of key witnesses in Asaram Bapu’s alleged sexual assault case is now under the Supreme Court’s scrutiny. The apex court has asked one of his accomplices, who is out on bail, to explain how within a year of release, three crucial witnesses were bumped off while four others sustained grievous injuries for testifying against the controversial preacher.
On February 10, 2014, Shiva, a co-accused along with Asaram Bapu, was released on bail by the Rajasthan High Court. After a fortnight, a prime witness in the Surat rape case Rakesh Patel was stabbed. A month passed and another witness Dinesh Waghchandani was attacked with acid. Two months later, another crucial witness Amrut Prajapati was shot dead at his clinic. He gave evidence against the godman over suspicious death of children at Asaram’s ashram.
As threatened witnesses showed grit to testify in court against the godman, the attacks took a gory turn. In January 2015, a key witness in the Surat rape case Akhil Gupta was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh. Ater a month, one Rahul Sachan who had testified in the Jodhpur rape case against Asaram Bapu was stabbed inside the court premises. He survived but is since missing. A former personal assistant of the godman Mahendra Chawla who had parted ways following the allegations was shot at in Panipat.
Even police officials were not spared. Such was the terror unleashed by the godman’s aides that an investigating officer lodged an FIR naming Shiva for threatening to eliminate his family. The cop was incharge of the godman’s security in court and had refused to yield to demands for allowing the accused to meet the godman.
Presenting these facts to court, an aggrieved father of one of the victims allegedly raped by the godman in Jodhpur ashram, said that witnesses including his family were living in fear while Shiva roamed without fear. After the family received constant threats, the bad news came on July 10, 2015 when the victim’s uncle Kirpal Singh, who testified against the controversial godman, was killed by unknown gunmen. In his dying declaration, he blamed Asaram’s men to be behind the crime.
Advocate Kamini Jaiswal who represented the victim’s father said that Shiva is the “closest and strongest” aide of the jailed godman. With the Rajasthan High Court turning down repeated pleas to grant bail to Asaram Bapu, Shiva is managing the empire and ensuring witnesses are threatened or eliminated, she said.
The Vacation Bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy has issued notices to the Rajasthan Police and the accused in question who is out on bail to explain if the killing of witnesses should be a ground to cancel the bail. The hearing will take place on Friday.