Self-Styled 'Godman' Asaram Bapu Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Rape and Sodomy of Former Disciple: Who Is Asaram? How Did He Rise To Power and Influence?

On Tuesday, 31 January, a Gandhinagar court in Gujarat held self-proclaimed 'godman' Asaram guilty of sodomy and rape of a former devotee, who had levelled the accusation against him more than a decade ago. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment. This is the second sentence Asaram will serve on sex crime charges. The self-styled 'godman', called "Asaram Bapu" by his followers, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 for the rape of a minor girl in 2013 in Jodhpur – also a former follower of the religious leader. Asaram is credited with starting over 400 ashrams and 40 residential schools in India, which have been run by his daughter Bharati since Asaram's arrest in 2013 for the Jodhpur rape case. His empire is reportedly worth over Rs 5,000 crore.How did 81-year-old Asaram rise to a position of such tremendous influence and wealth? What are the cases against him? What other controversies have surrounded him? Here's everything you need to know about convicted rapist and self-styled 'godman' Asaram.Asaram was born in Berani village in Pakistan's Sindh region, as Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani, on 17 April 1941.His family crossed the border into India after the Partition and settled in Ahmedabad, then a part of Bombay. According to Sant Asaramji Ki Jeevan Jhanki, a biography published by his ashram, his tryst with spirituality began when he ran away from home to an ashram at the age of 15, eight days before he was to be married. He eventually returned and married his wife Laxmi Devi, but left home again at the age of 23. On October 7, 1964, Guru Leelashahji Maharaj accepted him as a follower and named him 'Sant Shri Asaramji Maharaj'.According to his book, Asaram returned to Ahmedabad in 1971 and set up a hut at Motera village in 1972. A year later, in 1973, Asaram turned this hut into his first ashram, with around 10 disciples. From then, till his arrest in 2013, the religious leader's empire continued to grow, boosted by favours from different governments in power in Gujarat. In 1981 and 1992, the Congress governments in the state would allot land to Asaram's ashrams – to the tune of over 14,500 square metres. The BJP governments in the state would do likewise, allocating a total of 25,000 square metres of land to his ashrams in the years 1997 and 1999. But this growth wouldn't be without controversy, which we'll get to shortly.In a deposition following his arrest in 2013, Asaram stated that he was the chairman of over 40 gurukuls, i.e., residential schools owned and run by the Sant Shri Aasaramji Trust, but that his wife Laxmi Devi, daughter Bharati Devi, and daughter-in-law Janaki Devi, oversaw their operations. Uttar Pradesh: Body of Missing Minor Girl Found at Asaram's Ashram in GondaAsaram's growth did not come without controversy. The Gujarat government, in 1997, initiated litigation against Asaram's ashram over land spanning 34,000 square metres in Surat. Asaram was accused of illegally encroaching on the land that the government had acquired for public use, and in 2008, the Gujarat High Court ordered the return of the land to the original owners. The Supreme Court upheld this order in 2012. In 2010, the Gujarat government once again took back the land of over 67,000 square metres that Asaram's ashram had encroached upon in Ahmedabad. The government also repossessed 70 acres of land that Asaram's family had purchased in the Sabarkantha region, allegedly after forging documentation. Elsewhere, in Bihar, the Bihar State Religious Trust had also accused Asaram and his followers of encroaching on land in Patna in 2006. In 2009, this was resolved in court, with Asaram being forced to vacate the land. Similar accusations of land encroachment have been levelled against Asaram's outfit in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam and Rajasthan's Jodhpur. But the controversies surrounding Asaram don't end there. In fact, the rabbit hole goes much deeper. The media spotlight truly fell on Asaram in July 2008, following the mysterious deaths of two boys – Dipesh and Abhishek Vaghela – who belonged to the Ahmedabad ashram. The bodies of the two were recovered from near the lake at Sabarmati, badly mutilated and with organs reportedly missing. The victims' parents accused Asaram and his son Narayan Sai of killing their children to practise black magic.Later in the same month, the bodies of two more boys aged 4 and 5 were recovered from the gurukul in MP's Chhindwara. Journalists and protesters were reportedly assaulted and intimidated by goons working for Asaram in the weeks that followed.A former disciple of Asaram, Raju Chandak stated that the deaths were a result of 'black magic' being practised at the ashram. Chandak would later accuse Asaram of orchestrating an attempt to murder him, after he was allegedly shot at, in December 2009.In August 2013, a 16-year-old former devotee of Asaram accused the self-styled 'godman' of raping her under the pretense of "ridding her of evil spirits." The survivor's parents were followers of Asaram, and the girl was a student at one of his gurukuls in Madhya Pradesh. A teacher at the gurukul sent her to Asaram to "help cure her". The FIR states that the 'godman' then locked her in a room and molested her, even demanding oral sex. When she attempted to shout and stop Asaram, he reportedly threatened to kill her family.The trial in the case began with the arrest of Asaram and his son Narayan Sai and continued till 2018. During the course of the trial, several witnesses either died under suspicious circumstances, were critically injured, or turned hostile. These included two witnesses being stabbed, three being shot and killed, one going missing, one being attacked with acid, and one witness turning hostile during the hearing.A year before his conviction, the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the apex body of sadhus and sants in the country, included Asaram on their list of fake godmen and babas.On 25 April 2018, a Jodhpur court found Asaram guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. At present, Asaram is in Jodhpur Central Jail, serving out his first life sentence. The rape convict has attended hearings in the present case virtually from jail. He was also sentenced to his second life imprisonment virtually.Self-Proclaimed Godman Asaram Gets Life Sentence in 2013 Rape Case

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Asaram Sentenced to Life Imprisonment – Who Is the Self-Proclaimed 'Godman'?

Asaram has been convicted of rape and sodomy in a second case.