Police raid MP ashram in search of Narayan Sai

A police team raided Asaram's ashram at Dhengda in Sheopur district, about 400 km north of Bhopal, on Wednesday afternoon while looking for the son of the self-styled godman, Narayan Sai.

A police team raided Asaram's ashram at Dhengda in Sheopur district, about 400 km north of Bhopal, on Wednesday afternoon while looking for the son of the self-styled godman, Narayan Sai.

Two Surat-based sisters have accused the father-son duo of sexually assaulting them. The whereabouts of Narayan Sai are unknown ever since he was named in the case. Asaram was remanded in four-day police custody on Tuesday in the case.

The Gujarat Police is tracking Sai's mobile phone which led them to believe that Sai was hiding at Dhengda ashram. A local police team headed by sub-divisional officer of police (SDoP) Ashok Singh Bhadoria reached the ashram at 1pm. However, media persons came to know about plans to launch a raid in the morning itself and they had reached the ashram at 11am.

The police team remained at the ashram for about two hours and searched every room but to no avail. The ashram manager told the police that Sai did not come to the ashram. Sevadars of the ashram allegedly misbehaved with the media persons.

Bhadoria said, "We had information about Narayan Sai hiding in the ashram. We searched the ashram but there was no evidence that he had been there."

The elder of the two sisters has accused Asaram of sexually assaulting her between 1997 and 2006 at his ashram, while the younger sister has filed a complaint against Sai, accusing him of repeated sexual assaults between 2002 and 2005 at the Surat ashram.