For Murdered Witnesses In Asaram Case, Wait For Justice Continues

New Delhi: The conviction and life term for Asaram -- the 77-year-old self-styled godman -- in a rape case, came after nearly five years of terror, threats and intimidation and three murders of witnesses who had agreed to testify against him. Not much headway has been made in any of the cases, said Utsav Bains, who is the counsel for the 16-year-old raped by Asaram.

The rape allegations by a 16-year-old in 2013 was the first time fingers were pointed at Asaram, who had created a huge Rs 10,000 crore empire that involved 400 ashrams across the world and millions of followers.  Later that year, two sisters from Surat came forward to claim that they had been illegally confined and raped by Asaram and his son Narayan Sai between the years 2002 and 2004.

Mr Bains said he feels despite the verdict, the criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul,

There is "no justice" when so many witnesses face intimidation and were even murdered, Mr Bains said, pointing out that the cases are still pending, in some there has been no FIR. "There has been political connivance and patronage. "The last government in UP also reduced the security of some witnesses- so what does that say?" he added. 

Asaram was arrested from Indore in July 2013. Over the next four years, nine witnesses were attacked - three of whom died. The police teams that were investigating the cases against him were threatened. Similar complaints came from local journalists who were reporting the case.

The first murder took place in May 2014. Amrut Prajapati, an Ayurveda practitioner who used to be Asaram's personal physician, was gunned down while he was in his clinic at Rajkot. He died in hospital nearly two weeks later. Amrut Prajapati was the key witness in the case filed by the two sisters in Surat. 

In January next year, Akhil Gupta, who used to be Asaram's cook and personal aide, was gunned down in Muzaffarnagar by two unidentified bikers while he was returning home at night. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

In July, Kripal Singh, the key witness in the Jodhpur rape case a rape case against Asaram, who was shot at in Sahajahanpur on July 10 and died a day later Mahendra Chawala and Rahul Sachan -- two other witnesses -- were attacked on the premises of the Jodhpur court in 2015. They survived and went ahead to depose against Asaram.

The man suspected in all three murders -- Kartik Haldar, a sharpshooter and staunch follower of Asaram -- was arrested from Raipur in Chhattisgarh in March 2016.

Besides the three murders, he was also involved in two other attacks - on Asaram's former personal assistant Mahendra Chawla in Haryana's Panipat in 2015, and the warden of Asaram's Chhindwada-based ashram, Omprakash Prajapati, and his wife Seema, the police said. The police said during his questioning, Kartik Haldar had even admitted to trying to buy an AK-47.

He is currently lodged in the Jodhpur Central jail, where Asaram will be serving his life sentence.