Jodhpur: Asaram, a self-styled godman with hundreds of thousands of followers, was on April 25 sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl.
The verdict was delivered inside a jail in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Authorities have put on high alert Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh where the 77-year-old godman has huge followers.
Asaram, who has 400 ashrams across the world, raped the girl in 2013. Her family had brought her to visit his ashram in Jodhpur.
The godman is also accused, along with his son, Narayan Sai, of raping two sisters in Surat in Gujarat during 2002-2004. The Supreme Court recently set a five-week deadline to complete the Surat trial.
Asaram was arrested in Indore in Madhya Pradesh for the Jodhpur case and moved to jail in the desert city. He appealed 12 times for bail but was turned down each time.
“We have got justice. I want to thank everyone who supported us in this fight. Now I hope he will get strict punishment. I also hope the witnesses who were murdered or kidnapped get justice,” said the father of the rape survivor.
During the Jodhpur trial, nine witnesses who testified against him, were attacked, three of them died.
Asaram, who has a long flowing white beard and used to dress in white robes, was accused of rape, and trafficking under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences), a stringent law on sexual crimes against children.
The minimum sentence for the crime is 10 years in prison and the maximum is life sentence.
The young girl he raped was left alone with him by her parents because Asaram’s aides said he would “cure” her of evil spirits that had possessed her. She testified later that he threatened to kill her if she revealed what he had done to her.
Of the four people accused along with him, two have been found guilty, two others have been acquitted.
“We will discuss the matter with our legal team and then decide on our future course of action. We have confidence in our judiciary,” said Neelam Dubey, a spokesperson for Asaram.
Asaram began establishing ashrams in the early 1970s.
He was born on April 17, 1941, in the Berani village of the Nawabshah district in British India (now in Sindh Pakistan), as Asumal Thaumal Harpalani or Asumal Sirumalani.
The family came to India during Partition of the sub continent in 1947 and settled in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where Asharam’s father founded a coal and wood business. Asharam ran this business for a short time after his father’s death.
Sources have described him to be involved in a variety of professions ranging from selling liquors and tea to repairing cycles, prior to his establishment as a religious leader.
Asharam and his wife Laxmi Devi have two children, including son Narayan Sai, who is also a religious leader.