JODHPUR: As he awaits a decision on his request to extend his interim bail by three more months, self-styled godman Asaram on Tuesday surrendered at the Jodhpur Central Jail following the expiry of the interim bail granted to him in January that ended on March 31.
Asaram, who was first arrested in 2013, is serving two life sentences awarded to him for rape by courts in Rajasthan in 2018 and Gujarat in 2023.
The Supreme Court agreed to release him on interim bail on medical grounds in January this year in the Gujarat case, noting that Asaram was “on his death bed”. The Rajasthan high court later also granted interim bail till March 28 in view of the Supreme Court decision to maintain parity.
On March 28, a division bench of the Gujarat high court delivered a split verdict on Asaram’s request to be released for six months. The case was referred to a third judge who agreed to extend his interim bail by three months.
Asaram’s legal team next moved the Rajasthan high court to seek a similar relaxation and sought an urgent hearing on Tuesday. But the high court declined to hear his plea today but said it would be taken up on Wednesday.
The Rajasthan high court’s decision to put off hearing the request for interim bail led Asaram to surrender to the Jodhpur jail.
A Rajasthan court sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment in April 2018 for raping a minor at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur in 2013. Asaram was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a district court in Gandhinagar in Gujarat on January 31, 2023 for repeatedly raping a woman disciple.
But reports of the Gujarat high court extending the interim bail granted to Asaram have prompted the rape survivor’s family to express concern for their safety. In Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district, where the woman who was raped by Asaram at his Jodhpur ashram when she was 16, the authorities said they have stepped up security arrangements for the family.
Shahjahanpur superintendent of police Rajesh Dwivedi told PTI that the authorities have taken suo motu cognisance of the high court ruling and enhanced the security of the rape survivor’s family.
The rape survivor’s family members, who have expressed fears for their safety, will now have to inform the police before travelling outside the district. Currently, a guard is deployed at the victim’s house while her father and brother have been provided with personal gunners, a PTI report said.
Instructions have been issued to Azizganj police outpost to keep a close watch on their residence, Dwivedi said.
