Asaram gets life sentence

Jodhpur: Nearly five years after he was arrested, Asaram, a self-styled godman with a following that runs into lakhs, was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl whose family brought her to visit his ashram in Jodhpur. The verdict was delivered on Wednesday inside a Jodhpur jail; authorities decided days ago that taking Asaram to court would risk the 77-year-old's followers from turning violent on the streets.

Special judge Madhusudan Sharma's verdict, which comes as the debate over sexual violence, particularly the rape of minors, rages across the country.

Police had stepped up security around Asaram's ashrams to prevent the kind of violence that was unleashed by Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim's followers last August.

Apart from Asaram, two other accused, Shilpi and Sharad, were convicted by the special court for SC/ST cases. It acquitted two others, Prakash and Shiva.

"The court has awarded life imprisonment to Asaram while the two other convicts have been each sentenced to 20 years in jail," a senior police official said.

Arguments for the quantum of sentencing were earlier held inside the heavily fortified jail premises, where the trial court delivered its verdict following the directions of the Rajasthan High Court.

Asaram, who started from a hut on the banks of the Sabarmati, created a Rs 10,000 crore empire with 400 ashrams in India and other parts of the world in four decades.

The charge sheet against Asaram and the four other co-accused was filed by the police on November 6, 2013, under various sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, the Juvenile Justice Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The teenager had said in her complaint that Asaram had called her to his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur and raped her on the night of August 15, 2013.

The 16-year-old girl from Shahjahanpur in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was studying at Asaram's ashram in Chhindwara in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

"We had complete faith in the judiciary and are happy that we got justice," her father told journalists after the verdict.

The family, he said, was living in constant terror and their business took a hit.

Ahead of the verdict, security was stepped up in Jodhpur where prohibitory orders were imposed.

Apprehending a threat to law and order, the Centre had asked Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana governments to tighten security and deploy additional forces as the three states have a large number of Asaram followers.

Final arguments in the Asaram case were completed on April 7, and the court had kept the order reserved for April 25.

Asaram was arrested in Indore and brought to Jodhpur on September 1, 2013. He was under judicial custody since September 2, 2013. 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.

Asaram unsuccessfully moved 12 bail applications, of which six were rejected by the trial court, three by the Rajasthan High Court and three by the Supreme Court. P5