Asaram Bapu was taken into police custody in August 2013, following which he was taken to Jodhpur Central jail. A month after his arrest a potency test was conducted on him and was produced before a Jodhpur court.
Rajasthan High Court
Five years after charges of rape were levelled against Asaram Bapu, the Jodhpur Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Court convicted the self-styled godman along with four accused in the case.
The father of the girl who was raped by Asaram in 2013 has reacted to the life-sentenced given to Asaram. “Now I feel that we have got justice,” the father was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
While discarding appeals of leniency by Asaram’s counsel and awarding the godman maximum possible sentence, that of life-long jail term under the latest amended definition of the offence of rape and the punishments for the same, the judge said, “Any unnecessary sympathy for the convict would harm the criminal justice administration system as it would weaken the faith of common people in it”.
It is also a sign of the times that every time the final verdict is set to be delivered in a criminal case involving a self-styled godman, the State concerned has to be on high alert and massive police deployment is required to quell possible trouble by followers.
The verdict in the case will be announced from inside the jail premises, as mandated by the Rajasthan High Court.