- Quantum of punishment to be pronounced on Tuesday
- His son Narayan Sai is lodged in a jail in Surat on the charges of sexually assaulting a woman in the Ashram in early 2000.
NE NEWS SERVIVE
GANDHINAGAR, JAN 30
Ten years after registering case, a court in Gandhinagar on Monday convicted self-styled godman Asaram Bapu for raping a woman disciple. Sessions court judge DK Soni reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for Tuesday.
The court acquitted six other accused, including Asaram’s wife, for want of evidence. One of the accused died during trial.
As per the FIR lodged at Chandkheda police station in Ahmedabad against the godman by a woman disciple in 2013, Asaram Bapu allegedly raped the woman on several occasions from 2001 to 2006 when she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of the city.
“The court has accepted the prosecution case and convicted Asaram under sections 376 2(C) (rape), 377 (unnatural offences) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code for illegal detention, among others,” special public prosecutor RC Kodekar said on Monday.
The controversial godman, 81, is currently lodged in jail in Jodhpur in another rape case. A Surat-based woman had filed a case of rape and illegal confinement against Asaram Bapu and seven others, one of whom died during the pendency of the trial, in October 2013.
His son Narayan Sai is lodged in a jail in Surat on the charges of sexually assaulting a woman in the Ashram in early 2000.
