The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday allowed self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is serving a life sentence for raping a minor, to undergo treatment for seven days at an Ayurvedic hospital in Maharashtra under police custody.
Asaram, 83, who was arrested in September 2013, was admitted at AIIMS Jodhpur for two days after he developed some heart-related ailment and has been undergoing treatment there.
Justices PS Bhati and Munnuri Laxman of the high court's Jodhpur bench directed that Asaram would stay for treatment at the hospital under police custody for seven days.
An ailing Asaram had insisted on Ayurvedic treatment and pleaded to the court to grant him permission for treatment specifically at Madhavbaug Multidisciplinary Cardiac Care Clinic and Hospital in Pune.
Earlier in March this year also, he had moved the high court with the same prayer seeking parole for 14 days. But the court had rejected the plea following a report from Pune police expressing apprehensions about a possible threat to law and order during his stay at the hospital here.
He was then allowed to have Ayurvedic treatment at a private hospital in Jodhpur for about a fortnight.
Asaram's pleas for suspension of sentence on health grounds were earlier rejected by the high court and the Supreme Court.
He was arrested in Indore for allegedly raping a teenage girl in his ashram here in 2013 and was convicted by a special POCSO court in 2018.
A Gujarat court had, in January 2023, convicted him in a decade-old sexual assault case involving a woman disciple and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The victim, a Surat-based woman, had accused him of repeatedly raping her at his ashram in 2013.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
US House Passes Bill To Avert Shutdown, Senate Vote To Follow
Rape Convict Asaram Bapu Gets Out Of Jail On 7-Day Parole For Medical Treatment Rape Survivor Gets Threats From Asaram Disciples, Security Increased: Cops Asaram "Habitual Offender", Should Be Imprisoned For Life, Court Told 4-Year-Old Boy Run Over By Speeding Creta In Mumbai, Teen Driver Arrested BJP Leader Who Lost To Priyanka Gandhi Challenges Election, Congress Reacts Stepwell, Likely 150-Year-Old, Discovered During Excavation In UP's Sambhal BJP Leader Who Lost To Priyanka Gandhi Challenges Election, Congress Reacts "Frontal Attack On Constitution": Congress Chief Slams Poll Rules Tweak 4 Dead As Ambulance Helicopter Crashes Into Hospital Building In Turkey Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.