Asaram convicted in 2013 rape case while serving life sentence: 10 facts

1. In 2013, a 16-year-old girl from Shahajahanpur, Uttar Pradesh accused Asaram of raping her at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur on the night of August 15. He was taken to Jodhpur Central Jail the same month from where he filed a complaint. number of bail applications.

2. The indictment filed against Asaram and four others in the case in November indicated blackmail in exchange for sexual favors. Asaram was convicted under sections 342 (forcible confinement), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (insult to the decency of any woman) of the Indian Penal Code, and section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO).

3. During Asaram’s time in prison, a number of key witnesses to the case were attacked or disappeared. Asaram’s doctor, Amrut Prajapat, was shot dead in Rajkot, Gujarat, in June 2014. His cook Akhil Gupta and another key witness, Kripal Singh, were shot dead in 2015 in Uttar Pradesh.

4. Mahendra Chawala and Rahul Sachan, two other witnesses, were attacked at the courthouse in Jodhpur in 2015. They survived and went to testify against Asaram.

5. While still in prison, a Surat-based woman filed a rape and forcible confinement complaint against Asaram and seven others including her son Narayan Sai, wife and daughter, in October 2013. The woman accused Sai of sexual assault repeated while she was alive at Asaram Ashram in Surat.

6. The FIR, hosted at Chandkheda police station in Ahmedabad, claimed Asaram allegedly raped the woman repeatedly from 2001 to 2006 while she was living in his ashram on the outskirts of the city.

7. In April 2018, Asaram was sentenced to life in prison for raping the 16-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh. In addition to the life prison sentence, he was also charged under two other laws for which he was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison.

8. Prior to the verdict, security had been tightened in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana. Judgment in the case was delivered inside Jodhpur Central Jail over fears of possible communal violence.

9. Last year, Uttar Pradesh police tightened security for the victim’s family after his father claimed a threat to his life and that of his family members by the followers of the so-called ‘god’ .

10. Asaram has thousands of followers across India with big money and muscle power.

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