Asaram Bapu jailed for life in second rape case
Asaram Bapu was convicted of rape in two cases and has been sentenced to life imprisonment in both the cases.
Gujarat's Gandhinagar sessions court on Tuesday jailed self-styled godman Asaram Bapu for life in connection with a rape case from 2013. A Surat-based woman had accused Asaram of repeatedly raping her while she was at his ashram in Ahmedabad's Motera around 10 years ago.
This is the second sexual assault case in which Asaram Bapu has been convicted and jailed. The self-styled godman is already lodged in a Jodhpur prison after a Rajasthan court found him guilty in a separate sexual assault case in 2018.
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In 2013, after Asaram Bapu was arrested for raping the girl in Rajasthan, two Surat-based women accused the self-styled godman and his son Narayan Sai of sexual exploitation.
The elder sister accused Asaram of sexual assaults between 1997 and 2006 when she lived at his Ahmedabad ashram.
The younger sister accused Narayan Sai of sexual assault when she lived at Asaram's ashram in Jahangirpura area of Surat between 2002 and 2005.
Narayan Sai was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 after a court convicted him of raping the younger sister. He was arrested in 2013 after a country-wide manhunt.
WHAT IS THE CASE?
The woman who filed the case against Asaram had alleged that she was raped by the self-styled godman in his ashram for several years and was held captive there. The case was first registered in 2013.
Throughout the investigation in the case, statements from 68 people were taken. The investigating officer of this case, Divya Ravia, had also received death threats several times during the investigation.
Eight people were accused in connection with the case, out of which one turned approver.
On Monday, the Gandhinagar court convicted Asaram of rape and acquitted the others accused in the case. Asaram's wife Lakshmi, daughter Bharati, and four female followers -- Dhruvben, Nirmala, Jassi and Meera -- were also accused but were acquitted by the Gandhinagar court.
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