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Synopsis

The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the order of the Rajasthan High Court summoning IPS Officer Ajay Pal Lamba to testify as a court witness in connection with Asaram Bapu's appeal contesting his conviction for raping a minor.

The division bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and MM Sundresh has also directed the Rajasthan High Court to take up this matter for hearing expeditiously.

Accordingly, the bench has allowed the appeal filed by the Rajasthan government challenging the HC’s order dated February 2022 asking IPS Ajay Lamba to record his evidence as a court witness in this case.

"We have allowed the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment. We request the High Court to take up the appeal for hearing expeditiously." the bench said.

A lower court sentenced Asaram Bapu to life imprisonment in the year 2018 for committing rape against a minor at his Ashram in Jodhpur in 2013. Asaram Bapu's appeal against his conviction is currently pending in the High Court, in which he claims that the entire prosecution case is fake and manufactured.

Eventually, an application was filed to summon Mr. Lamba. In the application, it was claimed that the victim was taught through some videos of the crime scene recorded by the officer. According to the application, the claim could be corroborated by the accounts given in the book Gunning For The Godman: The True Story Behind Asaram Bapu's Conviction which is co-authored by Lamba. The High Court had granted the application after hearing arguments on it.

Senior Advocate Manish Singhvi, representing the State government, pointed out that the book's disclaimer explicitly stated that the events were a dramatised version and were based on semi-fictional grounds. He further stated that Asaram was seeking a re-opening of his conviction on the pretext of the book.

Advocate Devadutt, representing Ashram argued that there were inconsistencies in the FIR. The statements were made on August 19 & 20, 2013, and the police statement was recorded on August 21, 2013 in Jodhpur. He also added that the description of the room appears to have appeared for the first time in the police statement. He said that the survivor was given a video of the room taken by Mr Lamba, the then-DCP (West), Jodhpur and that as a result, she was able to provide a realistic description of the crime scene in her police statement.

He stressed that the Trial Court had rejected Asaram's plea, citing a lack of evidence to indicate that the video was truly given to the survivor.  He further claimed that the State bears the burden of demonstrating that the additional evidence is irrelevant.

The bench after hearing arguments observed, “If we carefully look at the reasons given, which have found favour in the impugned judgment, we can easily visualize that there could be further applications for the recording of additional evidence of the main witnesses. The attempt is to re-open the entire case and seek re-examination of these witnesses at the appellate stage.”

Accordingly, the apex court allowed the SLP filed by Rajasthan Government to challenge the Rajasthan HC’s order to summon IPS Lamba.

Case Title: State of Rajasthan vs. Asharam @ Ashumal