The Gujarat High Court on Thursday suspended the sentence of life imprisonment given to religious leader Asumal Harpalani, better known as Asaram Bapu, for six months in a rape case from 2013, Live Law reported.

Last month, the Rajasthan High Court had also suspended Asaram’s sentence for six months and granted him interim bail on medical grounds.

On Thursday, a Gujarat High Court bench comprising Justices Ilesh J Vora and RT Vachhani verbally remarked that they would also suspend the sentence on similar lines as the Rajasthan High Court.

The 84-year-old has been in custody since August 31, 2013, facing charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.

In January 2023, a Gandhinagar Sessions Court sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl several times at his Motera ashram between 2001 and 2006. He was convicted under the Indian Penal Code sections about rape, unnatural offences, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation, assault or criminal force to confine a person, and molestation.

The Rajasthan High Court, while granting Asaram interim bail in October, said that he was in a “vegetative condition” and that the necessary medical facilities were not available in jail.

The religious leader’s counsel on Thursday placed last month’s order before the Gujarat High Court, and urged it to consider his medical condition and age, Live Law reported. “Whenever the appeal is listed we will argue it…We are not trying to delay,” the counsel said.

The Gujarat government’s counsel, however, suggested that if adequate medical facilities were unavailable in Rajasthan, Asaram could be shifted to a jail in Gujarat.

The lawyer for the victim, BB Naik, argued against temporary bail, contending that the certificates produced by Asaram did not say that he was critical, according to Live Law.

Before his conviction, Asaram was a prominent religious leader who established his first ashram in the 1970s along the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad and built a multi-crore business empire comprising various products and spiritual literature.

📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC

Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting