The duo – identified as Basavraj Avanna <g data-gr-id="28">Talloi</g>, a native of Bijapur in Karnataka and his wife Sejal Prajapati – were arrested from their residence in Banglore on Sunday and brought to Ahmedabad on Monday morning.
According to the police, both the accused are staunch followers of Asaram and organised attacks on at least six persons in Gujarat in the last two years to silence the voices against the <g data-gr-id="29">godman</g> and his son Narayan Sai, who is also in jail in connection with a sexual assault case registered against him in Surat.
“We arrested two key conspirators – Basavraj and Sejal – from Banglore yesterday. They along with 15 other staunch followers of Asaram have planned and carried out attacks on several witnesses and other anti-Asaram followers in recent past in Gujarat," said city police commissioner Shivanand Jha.
Police said the duo have made a 'hit list' of those whom they wanted to 'eliminate' because they were having an anti-Asaram stand. "Our primary investigation revealed that <g data-gr-id="30">sharp shooters</g> were hired by these conspirators. Apart from six cases of Gujarat, we are also trying to find out their role in cases outside the state," said Deputy Commissioner of Police(DCP) -Crime <g data-gr-id="31">Deepan</g> Bhadran.
Other 15 <g data-gr-id="34">sadhaks</g> of Asaram who helped the duo to execute the attacks were identified by police as Punit, Pravin Vakil, Shailendra, Arjun Vakil, Kishor <g data-gr-id="35">Bodke</g>, Atul Narkhede, Gopal Patidar, Chandrashekhar Talloi, Sunil Vankhede, Manoj, Ankit, Laxman Purohit, Rakesh Patel, <g data-gr-id="36">Sukesh</g> and <g data-gr-id="37">Tamraj</g>.
All of them are close to Asaram and used to live in different ashrams across India and are yet to be arrested, stated a press release by <g data-gr-id="26">crime</g> branch. As part of a conspiracy to 'teach lesson' to witnesses in Asaram's case and help 'Guruji' to come out of jail, all of them formed a group and decided to win sympathy of witnesses by projecting Basavraj and Sejal as victims of Asaram's atrocities.