File photo: Self-styled godman Asaram (R).
Self-styled godman Asaram has written a letter to a local court in Gandhinagar seeking fast track trial in a case filed by a Surat-based girl accusing him of raping her.
"He (Asaram) has sent a letter through Jodhpur prison authorities, where he is lodged at present, to expedite the trial of the rape case against him," Asaram's advocate Chandrashekhar Gupta told the Press Trust of India
"He has urged in the letter that he is an elderly person and he has been framed in a false case. He said he has been in jail for a long period of time and the case against him is not proceeding further," said Mr Gupta. After considering the contents of the letter, Additional Sessions Court judge R A Ghoghari posted the case for hearing on October 26.
Two Surat-based sisters had lodged separate complaints against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai accusing them of rape, sexual assault and illegal confinement.
The elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 2001 and 2006 during the time she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The 73-year-old Asaram had also sought temporary bail in the alleged rape case in March this year, which was rejected by the Gandhinagar court. The rape case against Asaram is pending at the stage of charge-framing in the Gandhinagar court.
Asaram is currently lodged in a Jodhpur jail after being arrested in September 2013 for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl at his Jodhpur ashram.