‘Good days will come, court made a mistake’
JODHPUR: A purported audio clip of Asaram, serving a life term at a Jodhpur jail, has surfaced online in which the self-styled godman is heard telling a person over phone that he will come out of the jail after ensuring the release of Shilpi and Sharat Chandra, the other two convicts serving 20-year sentence each.
According to Vikram Singh, deputy inspector general (DIG), Jodhpur Central Jail, the 15-minute audio clip might have been recorded during a telephone conversation Asaram had on Friday, two days after a Jodhpur court found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison for raping a teenage girl at a devotee’s cottage in Jodhpur five years ago.
The call was made with permission from jail authorities.
“Inmates are permitted to make a call over any two given numbers for 80 minutes in a month. He had spoken to a ‘sadhak’ at Sabarmati Ashram on Friday at 6.30 pm. May be this communication was recorded (then) and made viral,” said the DIG.
In a one-way communication which appeared like a telephonic sermon, Asaram first extended his gratitude to his followers for maintaining calm and not coming to Jodhpur on the day of verdict.
“I deeply thank all of you that you listened to me and did not come to Jodhpur. I thank my loved ones and their parents,” he is purportedly heard saying in the audio clip. He then tells his supporters to become ‘bade man waala’ (magnanimous). “The children always eat before the parents. First, I’ll arrange for the release of Shilpi and Sharat, and then I’ll come out and join you. There is nothing to worry,” he says. He adds that there are higher courts in the country. “If a mistake has happened in the lower court, there are upper courts for rectifying those mistakes,” he says.