Indian guru faces life in prison for raping teenage devotee

Additional sessions judge Madhusudan Sharma sentenced the trio after convicting them of various offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in a proceeding held in a specially convened court on the Jodhpur central jail premises.

When Asaram Bapu was arrested in 2013 for the rapes, many violent clashes took place between the Bapu’s followers and police in a number of major Indian cities. While the other two got 20-year term in jail in the case. Two others have been acquitted.

Outside the ashram of self-styled godman Asaram at Motera on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the usual buzz was missing on Wednesday.

Asaram started his first ashram in Gujarat in the 70s and now has many followers across India. The following night, Asaram called the victim to his room on the pretext of “curing” her.

The parents lodged a complaint against Asaram at Kamla Market police station in Delhi.

Asaram has denied the charges and he plans to appeal, according to a special notice on his organization’s website. The judgment came around 11am.

However, nothing was going to change the final verdict handed down to Asaram of finding him guilty. Just after a few days, a death penalty was demanded by the victim’s father for Asaram, while his son kept claiming that Asaram was in an unstable mental state.

He is now lodged in the Jodhpur Central jail, where Asaram will be serving his life sentence. He has been jailed since then, with courts refusing multiple attempts at bail.

“We had always stated that we have faith in the judiciary and it has been proved correct”, he told media persons who mobbed him for his comments. The family, he said, was living in constant terror and their business was hit.

The Home Ministry said that tight security was given to three states, Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan to avoid violence after the judgement. Last summer, spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Sing – the “Guru of Bling” – was convicted of rape.

At the same time, a legislator of the ruling government was accused of raping a minor in Uttar Pradesh. In the August of 2013, the complainant had fallen ill and had fainted.

Self-styled godman Asaram who was convicted of rape today had asked his victim to “surrender to him, boasting that senior officials bowed their heads at him”. Six women, including Asaram’s wife, daughter, and four ashram office-bearers, have been booked for conspiracy and illegal confinement. “We have gone through a lot of hardships over the last five years, our lives were threatened”.