A sessions court in Gujarat’s Surat district sentenced Narayan Sai, the son of religious leader Asaram, to life imprisonment in a rape case on Tuesday, ANI reported. The court had pronounced Sai guilty in the case on April 26.
In 2013, two sisters from Surat had filed separate rape complaints against Asaram and Sai. One of them accused Narayan Sai of repeated sexual assaults when they lived at Asaram’s ashram in Surat between 2002 and 2005.
Of the 11 accused in the case, six were acquitted on April 26. Sai’s aides Dharmishtha alias Ganga, Bhavna alias Jamuna, and Pavan alias Hanuman were found guilty of taking part in a conspiracy. Sai’s driver Rajkumar alias Ramesh Malhotra was held guilty for harbouring an offender.
Dharmishtha and Bhavna had been accused of putting the complainant in illegal confinement and thrashing her on Sai’s instructions, as well as trying to brainwash her to have a relationship with Sai. Pavan had been accused of taking the complainant to Sai’s room.
Sai was arrested from Pipli near Kurukshetra in Haryana in December 2013. In April 2018, a Jodhpur court had sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment in another rape case filed in Rajasthan.
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