Narayan Sai moved a court in Surat seeking temporary bail to contest UP elections.
Self-styled godman Asaram's son Narayan Sai, currently jailed in a rape case, on Thursday moved a court in Surat seeking temporary bail to contest assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh beginning next month. Sai moved an application before Additional Sessions Judge PS Gadhvi, stating he could contest on two seats--Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district and Shivpur in Varanasi.
Seeking the relief, he stated that Ojaswi Party, of which he is one of the founders, wants to field candidates in the elections and that he needs to be out of jail to oversee the preparations.
The court kept the matter for hearing on January 21. Sai was arrested for allegedly raping a Surat-based woman disciple of his father between 2002 and 2005. Seven persons, including Sai and his aides were charged under sections of Indian Penal Code for rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.
The woman had accused Sai of repeated sexual assault when she was living at Asaram's ashram in Surat.
The victim's elder sister had also made similar allegation against Sai's father Asaram while she was living at an ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad between 1997 and 2006.
The two sisters had lodged separate complaints against Sai and Asaram for allegedly raping them.
He was arrested near the Delhi-Haryana border in December 2013 after evading law for two months following registration of the case against him.
Sai has been lodged at Lajpore Central Jail in Surat since December 2013.
Asaram is also facing trial in rape cases and lodged in a jail in Jodhpur.