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No bail for Asaram’s 
son Sai in rape case

A GUJARAT COURT has thrown out the bail plea of controversial preacher Asaram Bapu’s son Narayan Sai who has been cooling his heels in a jail in Surat after a former inmate of his ashram in the diamond city accused him of rape.

Sources in the spacious retreat headquartered in Ahmedabad and managed by the father-son duo told Khaleej Times that Sai would now move the Gujarat High Court.

While rejecting the bail plea of Sai, also a spiritual preacher, and sending him to judicial custody, the Surat court observed on Wednesday that an offence of rape was made out prima facie against the accused who could tamper with evidence and harm the complainant in the case if released on regular bail at present.

In his bail plea, Sai had argued that the Gujarat police had already filed the charge-sheet in March which indicated that the probe in the rape case had been completed, adding that complaint was filed against him after 11 years with malafide intentions.

The charges against Sai include rape, unnatural sex, criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement of the victim, physical assault, criminal intimidation, attempt for deadly attack and rioting.

Two sisters had lodged complaints against Sai (42) and his father Asaram (73) of rape, sexual assault, illegal confinement and other charges.

In her complaint, the younger of the two had accused Sai of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at the Surat ashram.

The elder sister had filed a rape complaint against Asaram and a separate case is going on against him in the Gandhinagar court.

Only last month, Amrut Prajapati, a key witness in the sexual assault case against Asaram who was fired at recently, had succumbed to his bullet injuries at his home in Ahmedabad.

Prajapati, an ayuvedic doctor who served as the spiritual guru’s personal physician for several years but had turned against him later, was shot in the neck and chin from close range by a patient at his clinic in Rajkot on May 23.

Prajapati had been raising his voice against Asaram for many years after quitting his ashram 15 years ago.

He had even spilled the beans in the Surat sisters rape case saying how he had often caught the preacher in compromising positions with woman devotees.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com