Self-styled godman Asaram was convicted in 2013 rape case by a trial court in Jodhpur. PTIWho is Asaram Bapu
Asumal Sirumalani, called as Asaram Bapu by his followers, is a controversial religious leader who has a huge following in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana. Asumal was born in 1941 in the Nawabshah District (now in Pakistan) of British India. His family moved to India post partition, but Asumal ran away to an ashram at the age of 15. He started to preach in the early 1970s, went on to establish over 400 ashrams in India and abroad.
2013 rape case
• The godman was accused of raping a teenage girl from Shahajahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, who was studying at the godman's ashram at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.
• The victim had alleged that Asaram called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013.
• Asaram denied the rape charges.
• The charge sheet against Asaram and four other co-accused Shiva, Shilpi, Sharad and Prakash was filed by the police on November 6, 2013, under various sections of the POSCO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and IPC.
• When the police went to arrest him, Asaram went into hiding at one of his ashrams in Indore. To thwart the arrest attempt, his disciples clashed with the police.
• Asaram was finally arrested in Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013
• Since then Asaram has been lodged at the Jodhpur central jail as 12 of his bail pleas have been rejected.
Witnesses killed
• Amrut Prajapati, a close aide of Asaram Bapu, shot. He succumbed to injuries on June 10 at his residence in Ahmedabad
• Another aide of Asaram, Akhil Gupta, was shot dead in 2015.
• In February 2015, a witness in the case, Rahul K Sachan, was stabbed outside a local court. He was supposed to give a statement against the godman.
Other case
• Asaram is also facing a rape case in Surat in Gujarat in which the Supreme Court earlier this month gave five weeks time to the prosecution to complete the trial.
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