Asaram Bapu being taken to court by the Jodhpur Police
A fresh case of sexual assault has been registered against spiritual leader Asaram Bapu, who is in jail on similar charges. The complaint lodged by two sisters in Surat also names Asaram's son Narayan Sai.
The elder of the two sisters has alleged in her complaint that she was raped by Asaram at his Ahmedabad ashram; the younger sister has accused Narayan Sai of raping her in Surat. They say they are Asaram's followers and the incidents took place between 2002 and 2004.
The complaint against Narayan Sai has been registered at Jhangirpura police station in Surat, while the one against his father Asaram has been transferred to Ahmedabad as the alleged incident happened there, Surat Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said.
The police will question Narayan Sai in connection with the complaint shortly, he said.
Asaram, 75, was arrested in August on charges of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl and has been in prison in Jodhpur in Rajasthan since then. Shilpi, one of his key aides and the warden of Asaram's 'ashram' in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh where the alleged sexual assault took place, too has been arrested and sent to judicial custody.
In court, investigators alleged that the spiritual leader has paedophilia.
But Asaram's famous lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, alleged that the teen complainant is not under-age or younger than 18, and that she made up the charges because she likes to spend time online and watch movies and was restricted in both activities at the boarding school where she was enrolled at one of Asaram Bapu's ashrams in Madhya Pradesh.
In August, she travelled with her parents to meet him at his retreat in Jodhpur. She has told the police that she then spent an hour with him in a room, while her parents waited outside. He allegedly promised her family that he would exorcise her of evil spirits.