Jodhpur: Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, serving a life sentence in a 2013 sexual assault case was released on Tuesday night after the Rajasthan High Court granted him interim bail owing to his health complications.
After receiving the order from the Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday evening, his lawyers acted quickly to implement the order and secure Asaram's release from a Jodhpur hospital where he was undergoing treatment under custody.
Following the release, Asaram reached his ashram in Pal village of Jodhpur, where devotees welcomed him. The main gate of the ashram was decorated with Rangoli. He has been given three guards during his bail period.
Asaram Bapu was on Tuesday granted interim bail by the Rajasthan High Court, a week after the Supreme Court passed orders for his conditional bail on health grounds. Asaram, who is serving a life sentence in a 2013 sexual assault case, walked out of jail after 11 years and seven months. The bail will be valid until March 31, 2025, and is conditional, requiring Asaram to avoid contact with his followers, maintain distance from the media, and return to Jodhpur Central Jail by the deadline post-treatment.
On January 7, the Supreme Court had given interim bail to Asaram, but he could not come out of jail until he got relief from Rajasthan High Court. Asaram's bail petitions had been rejected earlier also, but this time the Supreme Court approved his bail on medical grounds.
Earlier, Asaram was briefly granted parole in November and December, during which he was allowed to avail treatment at Madhav Bagh Hospital in Pune. Treatment was facilitated in the hospital under police supervision but even then he was not allowed to meet his followers.
Asaram was sentenced to life in prison in April 2018 by a Jodhpur court, which found him guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl in one of his ashrams in 2013.
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