Ahmedabad: The Gujarat court sentenced preacher Asaram Babu to life imprisonment in the sexual assault case yesterday.
Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani was born in 1941 in the Sindh region of Pakistan. After the partition of India-Pakistan, his family moved to Ahmedabad, Gujarat. At a young age, Asumal did many jobs like repairing bicycles, selling tea, and selling liquor.
At the age of 15 he left home and took refuge in a local ashram. The preacher there accepted him as a disciple and named him Asaram.
After that he started more than 400 ashrams and 40 schools in India and abroad.
There are many cases against him including aggression and sexual assault. He has already been sentenced to life imprisonment in the case of raping a girl in an ashram in Rajasthan and is in Jodhpur jail.
In this case, a female disciple from Surat, who was staying in the ashram, filed a sexual assault complaint against Asaram Babu in 2013. From 2001 to 2006, the lady disciple stayed at Asaram Babu’s ashram. Then the female disciple complained that Asaram Babu sexually assaulted her several times.
It was also reported that Asaram Babu’s son Narayan Sai raped the younger sister of the victim girl disciple in the ashram. In this case, Narayan Sai was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.
The case against Asaram Babu came up for final hearing in the Gandhinagar court yesterday. At that time, Justice DK Soni said that Asaram Babu was guilty.
6 people including Asarambabu’s wife and daughter who were accused of being accomplices in his crime were acquitted. Asaram Babu’s sentence was announced yesterday. Judge DK Soni sentenced Asaram Babu (81) to life imprisonment yesterday.
Asharambabu’s lawyer has said that an appeal will be filed in the Gujarat High Court against the verdict.
