Jodhpur: After spending nearly 12 years in jail, self-styled godman Asaram Bapu was on Tuesday granted interim bail by the Rajasthan High Court, a week after Supreme Court passed orders for his conditional bail on health grounds.
Asaram Bapu, who is serving life sentence in 2013 sexual assault case, has been granted bail exactly 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.
Advocate Yashpal Singh Rajpurohit explained that on January 7, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Asaram, but he couldn't be released until Rajasthan High Court extended relief. Asaram's bail petitions had been rejected earlier also, but the Supreme Court approved his bail this time on medical grounds, while observing that he is suffering from various ailments and needed treatment.
Soon after the top court granted him relief, Asaram's counsels moved a suspension of sentence plea in the high court. A division bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vineet Kumar Mathur granted interim bail to Asaram considering that the nature of the plea was similar to the one filed in the Supreme Court. "We argued that the plea was similar in nature to that filed in the Supreme Court and the grounds stand valid in this case as well," Asaram's counsel Nishant Bora said. He said the conditions for Asaram's interim bail are the same as those set by the apex court on January 7 except one.
"If Asaram wants to travel outside (Jodhpur), he will have to bear the expenses of the three constables who have been asked to accompany him," Bora said. A lower court sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment in April 2018 for raping a minor at his ashram in Jodhpur in 2013.
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.
It is pertinent to mention that Asaram was arrested by Jodhpur Police on August 31, 2013 for allegedly raping a minor at his ashram, and has been lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail after being handed a life imprisonment by a lower court in April 2018. He was convicted in January 2023 for offences under 376(2)(C), 377, and other sections of the IPC, on the basis of allegations dating back more than two decades.
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SC Grants Interim Bail To Asaram Bapu On Medical Grounds, Puts Bar On Meeting Followers
