Gandhinagar court to examine Asaram in rape case via video conferencing

A court in Gandhinagar in Gujarat on Thursday said it will examine jailed self-styled godman Asaram via video conferencing in a 2013 rape case in which he and six others have been arraigned as accused.

Additional District Judge DK Soni kept the matter for further statement of the accused under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on August 4, after the prosecution concluded production of evidence this week.

Asaram and six others, comprising his wife Lakshmi, daughter Bharti and four women followers Dhruvben, Nirmala, Jassi and Meera, will be examined by the court on August 4 under section 313 of the CrPC, his lawyer CB Gupta said.

Asaram was in 2018 sentenced to life in prison until death by a Jodhpur court in neighbouring Rajasthan for raping a teenager in August 2013. He is currently lodged in Jodhpur central jail.

The Gandhinagar court is hearing a rape case lodged against him at Ahmedabad's Chandkheda police station in 2013. Asaram is accused of rape, unnatural sex, wrongful confinement, criminal conspiracy and causing disappearance of evidence, among other offences.

The six co-accused, including his wife and daughter, have been charged with abetment, illegal confinement and conspiracy.

The Surat police had, on October 6 last year, registered complaints filed by two sisters, one against Asaram and the other against his son Narayan Sai, of rape, sexual assault, illegal confinement and other charges.

The complaint against Asaram was transferred to Chandkheda police station in Ahmedabad since the incident took place in an ashram here.

The elder of the two sisters, in her complaint, had accused Asaram of sexual assault between 1997 and 2006 when she was living in his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city.

The younger sister had filed a complaint against Sai, accusing him of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she lived in their Surat ashram. Sai has been arrested by the Surat police and is now in judicial custody.