Rajasthan High Court grants interim bail to Asaram Bapu in 2013 rape case

“We said that he is 86 years old, is suffering from multiple ailments and has been in and out of hospitals so many times, and that he has been granted parole for treatment multiple times, too. Then, we said that the SC granted indulgence only on the grounds of his age and ailment, which is undisputed. So, unless we get the same order from this court, the SC order will become ineffective,” Bora said.

“The court agreed and said you will be released on the same conditions as stipulated by the SC,” he said.

The conditions will remain the same as put forth by the Supreme Court, including that Asaram can’t meet his followers in groups, give sermons or talk to the media. “He has been given three guards, and in case he goes out of Jodhpur, then the boarding, lodging and other expenses of the guards will have to be taken care of by Asaram himself,” Bora said.

Since August last year, he has been granted parole and multiple extensions, including for a visit to a Pune hospital. However, unlike parole, there will be no restrictions on Asaram’s movements once he is out on bail. Currently, he is undergoing treatment at a Jodhpur hospital while still in custody.

Asaram was sentenced to life in prison in April 2018 by a Jodhpur court, which found him guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl in one of his ashrams in 2013.

Asaram was chargesheeted on November 6, 2013, and after a trial lasting almost five years, a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court in Jodhpur convicted him on April 25, 2018. He was convicted under IPC sections 370(4), 342, 354-A, 376(2)(f), 376-D, 506, 509/34 and 120-B, and sections 23 and 26 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, and Sections 5(f)/6, 5(g)/6, and 8 of the POCSO Act.

In January 2023, Asaram was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Gandhinagar sessions court, which held him guilty in another rape and unnatural sex in a case registered in 2013 for raping a woman disciple, who was from Surat, on several occasions from 2001 to 2006 when she was living at his ashram at Motera, near Ahmedabad. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Asaram to be paid as compensation to the victim.