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Synopsis

Asaram Bapu has moved the Gujarat High Court pleading that his jail term be suspended because he has a strong possibility of winning his appeal and the case may not be heard anytime soon. He has been charged with life sentence for repeatedly raping a female disciple and is currently lodged in a jail in Jodhpur.

The matter was listed on Tuesday before a Division bench of Justices AY Kogje and Hasmukh Suthar.

The application has claimed that the prosecution’s entire case appeared to be "fake, fabricated, concocted" and the prosecutrix's afterthought.

It was further argued that the prosecution witnesses were behind the case and that they had carefully plotted it because they seemed "dissatisfied and unhappy" with how his ashram was run.

"The trial court has erred in appreciating the fact that various witnesses cited by the prosecution appear to be enmity witnesses i.e. the witnesses who were either removed from Ashram due to their ill-conduct or had left Ashram and wanted to extort money from the Ashram," the plea stated.

The plea also stated that as per the investigating officer, some witnesses who testified against Asaram claimed they had never observed wrongdoing occurring in his ashram but were willing to testify if their testimony could be used to convict him.

"Most witnesses were thrown out from the Ashram in the year 2004 due to his activities in contravention to the ideology of Ashram and thereafter, they have tried to defame the image of Ashram and also tried to falsely implicate the applicant in false cases," the plea further stated.  

The FIR in the present case was lodged after 12 years, which indicated premeditation on the part of the prosecutrix, added the applicant.

The plea further took the ground of Asaram being a senior citizen, suffering from old age ailments and being behind bars for a considerable period.

On 31.08.2021, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea for suspension of sentence by Asaram.

Case Title: Ashumal @ Asharam Thaumal Sindhi v. State of Gujarat