Asaram broken after life imprisonment; Gujarat rape case pending: 10 points
Asaram broken after life imprisonment; Gujarat rape case pending: 10 points on Business Standard. Asaram has been sentenced to life imprisonment until his death by a Jodhpur court for raping a minor in 2013. Another case of alleged sexual exploitation on 2 Surat-based sisters remain pending.
Latest News While a Jodhpur court on Wednesday sentenced selfstyled godman Asaram to prison term for life until his natural death for raping a minor girl, two other women in Gujarat who have accused the 77-year-old preacher of sexually assaulting them are awaiting justice. The matter related to the alleged sexual exploitation of these two Surat-based sisters, who have alleged rape and illegal confinement by Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, is still pending before a court in Gujarat's Gandhinagar. Sai was arrested in December 2013 over the complaint lodged by these women. In the Surat rape case, earlier this month, the Supreme Court gave the prosecution five weeks' time to complete the trial. The apex court pulled up the Gujarat Police for a delay in completing recording of evidence in the case, saying that "it cannot go like this for months". Asaram Convicted, the man in the eye of a storm of his own making, reportedly appeared broken after his conviction on Wednesday and kept telling his legal team to "do something", even as arguments on the quantum of his sentence were being made. This was in stark contrast to how he had reportedly behaved with the victim in the case. Asaram had asked his victim, according to her statement, to
'surrender' to him, boasting that senior officials bowed their heads before him. Meanwhile, following Asaram's conviction, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that nobody is above the law and promised "appropriate action" on an activist's demand that two places in Bhopal named after the jailed preacher be renamed. Reacting to Wednesday's developments, the Shiv Sena said that the Asaram rape case showed that the Hindu religion needed an "awakening", adding that the conviction and punishment handed down by the court was a "big victory" for the rape survivor. Asaram was arrested in 2013 after a girl from Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur, then 16 years old and a Class 12 student at his Chhindwara Ashram in Madhya Pradesh, filed a complaint accusing Asaram of rape at his ashram in Manai village on the Jodhpur outskirts on the night of August 15, 2013. Here are the top 10 developments following Asaram's life imprisonment until death sentence in the 2013 rape case:
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