Amrut Prajapati murder case accused held from Asaram’s Karnataka ashram after 10 yrs

Police personnel went undercover in the ashram as “sevaks” (volunteers) and identified Bodke.

He was then arrested and brought to Gujarat on a transit warrant and handed over to CID Crime. “Bodke is the fourth of 11 accused to be arrested in this case. While he was not one of the shooters who attacked Prajapati, Bodke was involved in the conspiracy to prepare a list of persons against whom retribution was to be taken for speaking up against Asaram,” said DCP (Crime) Parthrajsinh Gohil of the Rajkot City Police.

While three persons, including sharp shooter Kartik Haldar (who had opened fire), were already arrested by police for the murder, eight other accused, including Bodke, were absconding after the incident, Gohil told reporters.

Prajapati, who was one of the witnesses in the deaths of the two young boys whose skeletons were found at Asaram’s ashram, was shot at a close range in the neck and face by two assailants at his Rajkot clinic on May 23, 2014. Two weeks after the shooting, Prajapati died while undergoing treatment at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on June 10, 2014, after which murder charges were added to the attempt-to-murder case.

He had also spoken on Asaram’s sexual exploitation of women at the ashram.

Over the years, the Prajapati murder case was transferred first to DCB of Rajkot City Police and then to CID Crime of Gujarat Police, who is currently investigating the case.

Apart from the Rajkot murder case, Bodke is also wanted in two attempted murder cases and one case of assault — all three in Surat.

The arrest comes only three days after the Supreme Court, on January 7, granted bail to 86-year-old Asaram till March 31. Currently, he is on a life sentence in a 2013 rape case of a Surat woman.