Gujarat rape case: Asaram Bapu gets life term for rape, abduction of woman

On Monday, sessions judge DK Soni reserved his verdict on the quantum of sentence after convicting Asaram of sexual assault.

AHMEDABAD: A Gandhinagar court on Tuesday handed out a life term to religious preacher Asaram in connection with a case filed by a Surat-based woman who accused him of raping her at his ashram in Ahmedabad between 2001 and 2006.

Asaram gestures to media persons as he returns after being produced at a sessions court in connection with the case of sexual assault of a minorin November 2013 (HT File Photo)

On Monday, sessions judge DK Soni reserved his verdict on the quantum of sentence after convicting Asaram of sexual assault.

Asaram is already serving a life sentence in two sexual assault cases. He was first arrested in 2013 on charges of raping a teenage student at his ashram.

The Surat-based woman, a former disciple, filed a first information report against Asaram and six others in 2013, alleging that they illegally confined her at the Ahmedabad ashram and raped her between 2001 and 2006.

The survivor said in the FIR that she was raped at Asaram’s Ashram in Chandkhedra. Her sister also filed a case against Asaram Bapu’s son, Narayan Sai, for raping her and illegally confining her in Surat ashram during the same period.

Sai was convicted in 2019 by a Surat court and sentenced to life imprisonment.