A Gujarat Court on Tuesday sentenced Asaram Bapu to life imprisonment in a rape case. The Gandhinagar sessions court sentenced Asaram Bapu to life imprisonment in a decade old sexual assault case and fined him Rs. 50,000.
Asaram was found guilty of rape, sodomy, molestation, unlawful confinement of the survivor using force, and criminal intimidation. Asaram’s wife Lakshmi, his daughter Bharti, his Motera ashram office-bearer Dhruvben Balani, worker Jaswantiben Chaudhary, and his adherents Nirmala, alias Dhel, and Mira, nicknamed Baglo, were all exonerated in subsequent sessions by Judge D K Soni.
The 81-year-old is serving a life sentence in a Jodhpur jail for raping a minor girl at his ashram in Rajasthan in 2013. He was present via a video-link, the same way he had attended the trial all these years.
Asaram, 81, is currently serving a life sentence in a Jodhpur jail for raping a minor girl at his Rajasthan Ashram in 2013. He wasn’t physically present in the court and attended via a video link.
Because to her poor health and hospitalisation in Surat, Asaram’s wife was not present in court. Asaram’s daughter was unable to arrive in time, thus the court had to wait to pronounce its decision.
Asaram Bapu was found guilty of rape in 2013, and the matter was brought before a court in Gandhinagar on Tuesday. The prosecution called Asaram Bapu a “habitual offender” and asked for life in jail and a large sentence. According to special public prosecutor RC Kodekar, Sessions Court Judge D K Soni finished hearing the arguments on the sentence’s length and scheduled the final decision for 3.30 p.m.