Asaram Bapu / Asaram sentenced to life imprisonment in rape case, had raped Surat woman

Asaram Bapu: Asaram was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday for raping a Surat woman. Gujarat's Gandhinagar sessions court convicted Asaram on Monday. Earlier, on April 25, 2018, the Jodhpur court had sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment for raping a minor in UP. On Monday, Asaram's appearance in the court was done through video conferencing.

In this case, there were six other accused including Asaram's wife. Court held Asaram guilty. One of the accused died during the trial. The court acquitted the remaining five accused due to lack of evidence.

The case was registered in 2013. About 10 years ago, a woman from Surat had accused Asaram of repeatedly raping her at his ashram in Motera, Ahmedabad. An FIR was registered in this matter at the Chandkheda police station in Ahmedabad. According to the FIR, the woman was raped several times between 2001 and 2006 at an ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. The woman was then living in Asaram's ashram. The police had filed a charge sheet in the case in July 2014.

The victim's younger sister had filed a rape case against Asaram's son.

The younger of the two sisters filed a rape complaint against Asaram's son Narayan Sai and the elder sister against Asaram. Due to elder sister's complaint being transferred to Gandhinagar, Asaram was prosecuted in Gandhinagar, in which the court convicted Asaram on Monday. Public prosecutor RC Kodekar and Sunil Pandya said that we will try in the court that the culprits of this case get maximum punishment.

Asaram's man took the woman to the ashram

In the complaint of the victim woman, it was said that Asaram had asked her to be elected as the speaker on Gurupurnima and was later elected as the speaker. After this Asaram was called to Shantivatika, the farm house. Another person from the ashram took him to Asaram's farm house. There Asaram called him inside the room after washing his hands and feet and later massaged his head after asking for a bowl of ghee.

During massaging, Asaram started forcing himself on the victim woman. Asaram said – the sooner you surrender, the more you will move forward. On which the woman tried to run away from there. After raping, he also had unnatural sex. After this threatened and asked to leave from there.

Deadly attacks on witnesses

On February 28, 2014, the husband of one of the two victim sisters of Surat was fatally attacked. After 15 days, Asaram's videographer Rakesh Patel was also attacked. A few days after the attack, acid was thrown on witness Dinesh Bhagnani in a cloth market in Surat. All these three witnesses survived those attacks. On 23 March 2014, a witness, Amrit Prajapati, was shot dead. Amrit died after 17 days of treatment.

A witness was attacked in the court itself

In January 2015, another witness Akhil Gupta was shot dead in Muzaffarnagar. A month later, Rahul Sachan, who worked as Asaram's personal assistant, was attacked. Rahul, who had come to testify in the Jodhpur court, was fatally attacked in the court premises. Rahul Sachan survived the attack, but went missing on 25 November 2015 and has not been traced since.

The attacks on witnesses continued and on 13 May 2015, Mahendra Chawla was attacked in Panipat. However, Mahendra's life was saved in the attack. Three months later, another witness, Kripal Singh, 35, was shot dead in Jodhpur. Kirpal Singh testified in favor of the victim in the Jodhpur court.

Asaram was named instead of Ashumal

Real name is Ashumal Harpalani. He was born in April 1941 in Berani village of Sindh, Pakistan. After the partition of 1947 the family settled in Ahmedabad. In the 1960s, Asaram made Leelashah his mentor. Asaram claimed that the Guru had given him the name Asaram instead of Asumal. In 1972, Asaram built his small hut on the banks of the Sabarmati River near Motera village, ten kilometers from Ahmedabad. The number of devotees of Asaram started increasing gradually and his ashrams started opening in many cities of Gujarat and also in different states of the country.

Built an empire of ashrams in two-three decades

In the beginning, Asaram attracted the poor, backward and tribal people of Gujarat's villages with his 'lectures, indigenous medicine and bhajan-kirtan'. Later, gradually its influence started increasing in the middle class of the urban areas of Gujarat. In the initial years, free food was given in the name of Prasad after Asaram's lectures. In two-three decades, Asaram and his son Narayan Sai together had established an empire of 400 ashrams in the country and abroad.

As the number of ashrams and followers increased, Asaram's wealth started increasing. He was said to have assets worth about 10 thousand crores. The assets amassed by Asaram were also probed by the Central and Gujarat tax departments and the ED. Along with this, the investigating agencies also investigated the ashrams built by illegally occupying the land.