Spiritual leader Asaram Bapu booked for alleged sexual assault

The victim is a student of a gurukul in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. On August 7,the hostel superintendent reportedly called up the victim’s family in Uttar Pradesh and told them that she had been hospitalised. The hostel superintendent told the victim’s father that they had to take the girl for a CT scan,and it seemed that she was possessed by an evil spirit,said the police.

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But on reaching the gurukul the next day,the victim’s parents found her to be fit and healthy. The warden told them that Asaram had sent a mantra to bless the girl,after which she gained consciousness. They told her to take her to Asaram’s ashram in Jodhpur for a religious ceremony to cleanse her soul,saying that she had been possessed by witches. The warden told them that Asaram was ready to perform the ceremony himself and they should not delay their trip,police said.

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The victim,accompanied by her parents,reached Jodhpur on August 14. “One of Baba’s sewaks gave us a room. He told us that the religious ceremony would be carried out the next day,” the victim said in her complaint to the police.

On the evening of August 15,the victim and her parents reportedly went to meet Asaram Bapu. “Baba asked my parents to meditate outside,and called me inside a room. He asked me about my studies. He told me that I have the capability to become a spokesperson of his organisation. Then he asked one his sewaks to tell my parents to leave as the ceremony would take some time,” she said in her complaint.

“The Baba told me to check if my parents had left. I told him that my father had left but my mother was waiting outside. He then took me to a small room and switched off the lights. He touched me inappropriately,saying it was a part of the ceremony,” the complainant said. Asaram then allegedly assaulted the girl.

“He told the victim that he is an influential man,he is god,and could destroy her family if she dared to open her mouth. He allegedly raped the girl,while her mother sat outside,” said the police.

The victim reportedly informed her father about the assault only after reaching their home in Uttar Pradesh. “The victim’s father,who is a staunch follower of Asaram,came to Delhi in search of him as he knew that he was likely to attend a camp at Ramlila Maidan. When he did not find him here,he approached the police station,” said the police.

The police registered a “Zero FIR” (an FIR registered irrespective of the place of incident) and booked Asaram under Sections 376 (rape),509 (word,gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The case has been transferred to Jodhpur.

Earlier this year,Asaram had come under sharp criticism after he said that the December 16 gangrape victim should have addressed her attackers as brothers and pleaded for mercy.

In 2008,he was in the news after two boys were found dead outside his ashram in Ahmedabad.