Asaram son, 4 aides convicted of rape; sentence on April 30

Under strict police arrangements, Narayan Sai was produced before court by Surat police from Surat district Central Jail, on Friday afternoon. Police personnel were present inside and outside the courtroom, prepared to handle any untoward incident, considering that the accused has a large following.

Narayan Sai and nine others identified as Ganga alias Dharmishta Mishra, a resident of Motera ashram in Ahmedabad; Jamna alias Bhavna Patel, a resident of Gopalpuri street in Jaipur Rajasthan; Hanuman alias Kaushal Thakur, a resident of Shahiyari village in Kamtol taluka of Darbangha district in Bihar; Ramesh Malhotra, presently resident of Asaram Bapu ashram at Jahangirpura in Surat and native of Delhi; Mohit Bhojwani of Hanuman Nagar in Jaipur, Rajasthan; Monika Agrawal of Delhi; Pankaj Deora; and Ajay Diwan and his wife Neha Diwan of Delhi, were charged under various IPC sections for rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. Except Narayan Sai, all other nine accused were out on bail.

Sai was on Friday dressed in a white kafni and lungi with a shawl. The court room was filled with lawyers and media persons awaiting the verdict. He was seen smiling and speaking to other inmates whose cases were listed and also with the lawyers in the courtroom. He was also seen meditating in the courtroom.

After three hours, Judge P S Gadhvi delivered the verdict convicting Narayan Sai and four others identified as Ganga alias Dharmishtra Mishra, Jamna alias Bhavna Patel, Hanuman alias Kaushal Thakur and Ramesh Malhotra in the case. The judge’s order acquitted the others charged in the case. The court then ordered police to arrest the other accused and said the quantum of sentence would be pronounced on April 30.

After the judge announced verdict, Narayan Sai’s facial expression turned serious and emotional, and he did not talk to anybody in the court premises.

When the complaint of rape was registered against Narayan Sai, he absconded to evade arrest and fled from state to state but was finally arrested, after 58 days on the run, from Kurukshetra in Haryana in a joint operation by Surat and Haryana police on December 4, 2013.

Two sisters who are residents of Surat had lodged the complaint of rape against Asaram Bapu and Narayan Sai in two separate cases with Jahangirpura police station in Surat October 6, 2013. The case against Asaram Bapu was transferred to Chandkheda police station, under whose jurisdiction the crime was committed, while the one against Narayan Sai and others accused remained with Surat police.

The complaint against Narayan said the rape victim and her elder sister were devotees of Asaram Bapu and his son, and that during the period 2002 and 2005, Narayan sai with the help of his loyal devotees sexually exploited her and raped her at Jahangirpura ashram in Surat and other places.

In the complaint, the woman said Narayan Sai routinely raped girls to whom he was attracted. She described the modus operandi thus: After a spiritual sermon to a gathering, Sai would come close to the public and would mark a girl out to his disciples by giving her prasad (sweet). The disciples, Hanuman, Ganga, and Jamna would later take the girl to a room in the ashram and try to brainwash her saying that Narayan Sai was like God and to fulfill his needs she had to act according to his wishes and make him feel better.

The victim said that when she refused to comply, the disciples beat her up, threatened her and locked her in a room in the ashram for days. When any rape victim tried to escape from the ashram, the loyal aides of Narayan Sai would catch her and beat her and make false allegations against her so that other disciples would not revolt, the complaint added.

Speaking to the Indian Express, defense lawyer Kalpesh Desai said, “We have not got the copy of the verdict. Once we get the order copy, we will study it and later we will go ahead and challenge it in the Gujarat High Court. We will also see how much quantum of sentence is delivered.”