In a 2013 rape case, a court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar on Wednesday gave godman Asaram Bapu a life sentence.
The 81-year-old was found guilty in 2013 of raping a former female disciple.
Ashupal Harpalani, alias Asaram Bapu, was found guilty of rape and criminal intimidation by a district and sessions court in Gandhinagar on Monday. Five other co-accused in the case were found not guilty.
Asaram’s wife is one of them who was exonerated.
District and Sessions Court judge D K Soni held Asaram guilty under IPC Sections 376 (2)(c) (being on the management or staff of a place of custody established by or under any law for the time being in force or of a woman’s or children’s institution takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on any inmate of such place), 377 (unnatural sex), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506(2) (criminal intimidation), 354 (assault with intent to outrage modesty of woman), and 357 (assault to wrongfully confine a pertain).
Asaram is presently imprisoned in a Jodhpur jail where he is serving a life sentence for the 2013 rape of a young girl at his ashram in Rajasthan.
