Asaram's son Narayan Sai too convicted of rape

Surat:The Surat Sessions Court on Friday pronounced Narayan Sai, son of self-styled godman Asaram, guilty in a 2013 rape case. The quantum of sentence will be announced on April 30.

Narayan Sai, 40, was arrested from Pipli near Haryana's Kurukshetra in December 2013 after two sisters from Surat filed rape complaints against him and his father Asaram in October that year.

His father, Ashumal Harpalani alias Asaram, was convicted for life for raping a minor girl in Rajasthan last year.

One of the sisters had accused Sai, who also claims himself a godman, of repeated sexual assaults when they were living at Asaram's ashram between 2002 and 2005 in Surat. The victim's elder sister had also made a similar allegation against Asaram while she was living at an Ahmedabad ashram between 1997 and 2006.

They had lodged separate complaints against Sai and Asaram. Police had booked Asaram and his son Narayan Sai on charges of rape, sexual assault, illegal confinement and other offences.

Four of Sai's aides were also arrested in the case.

Two chargesheets were filed against 35 persons, while the prosecution had produced 53 witnesses and defence had 14 witnesses.

The arrests of Asaram and son had sparked a series of attacks on key witnesses.

Three witnesses, closely associated with them, were killed, including a Rajkot-based Ayurveda doctor Amrut Prajapati, who was shot dead outside his clinic.

A cook and an aide of Asaram named Akhil Gupta was shot dead in his home town Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Kripal Singh, a witness in the Jodhpur rape case, died a day after he was shot at in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Narayan Sai is also facing charges of attempting to bribe policemen of Rs 8 crore for helping him in getting bail and acquittal.