Buzz missing in ashram
Outside the ashram of self-styled godman Asaram at Motera on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the usual buzz was missing on Wednesday. At the entrance to the ashram, is packed with his followers and staff on other days, only police and media personnel were to be seen.
In small groups, Asaram’s followers had arrived early in the morning for their daily routine of holding prayers and chanting shlokas behind the tall, grilled gates of the sprawling ashram on the banks of the Sabarmati river. Many of them tried to avoid the media and all that some of them had to say in response to questions was “Hari Om”.
The only statement came from DG Vanzara, a former Indian Police Service officer who is an accused in the alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan, a case which dates back to 2004. “Neither the FIR (first information report) nor the charge sheet anywhere mentions that it was a case of rape. Even the complainant girl never used the word ‘rape’,” said Vanzara, brandishing a copy of the FIR. “We do respect the court’s judgement but the Constitution of India offers a four-layer judiciary system, from local to the Supreme Court. I am confident that the HC will acquit him.”
Gujarat police had stepped up security outside Asaram’s two ashrams in Ahmedabad and Surat.
More than 50 police personnel, led by a deputy commissioner, we- re deployed at the Motera ashram; around 40 policemen were maintaining vigil in the Sabarmati area and around 100 police as well as personnel from the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) were deployed at various places in Chandkheda, deputy commissioner of police HR Muliana said.
“Adequate police force was deployed since morning outside Asaram’s another ashram in Jahangirpura area of Surat district,” a police official said. “No untowardincidentanywhereinGujarat was reported. Adequate security measures have been taken to maintain law and order,” said deputy chief minister Nitin Patel.
The Ahmedabad ashram was established in 1972 and it is from this property that Asaram developed his trust, which now runs 400 ashrams across India. In Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, the white two-storey cottage where the 16-year-old girl was raped by Asaram also wore a deserted look.
Deora, who built the cottage in 2008, says all the charges against Asaram are made up. “It’s a conspiracy by the enemies of Hindu culture, by the Christian missionaries,” he alleged. Others in Manai, where Asaram’s ashram is located, don’t agree. “It was good that the Baba has been caught,” Ram Prakash, a villager said.
Shilpi Gupta alias Sanchita, 32, was warden of the Chhindwara gurukul in Madhya Pradesh. A resident of Raipur’s Mall Shri Vihar, Shilpi was arrested on September 25. According to the police charge sheet, she was found guilty of not taking the minor to a doctor when she fell ill. The warden of Chhindwara hostel told the teenager that she was under the influence of a supernatural spirit. Shilpi was charged with sending the minor to Asaram at his Jodhpur retreat for cure.
The court found her guilty of all the charges that included trafficking of a minor, wrongful confinement and rape. Sharadchandra alias Sharatchandra was director of the Shri
Shakti Trust and the Chhindwara residential school.
In its charge sheet, the Jodhpur police said the man instilled a fear of the supernatural in the victim’s mind.
Sharadchandra called her to his office and used another student of the hostel to prove that the victim was under the influence of a spirit and blamed it for her illness. The court found him guilty of making the girl believe that only Asaram could cure her.
Both Shilpi and Sharadchandra were found guilty of constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention. The law, after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, said each of the persons charged with this (section 376D) shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape. The minimum punishment for this is 20 years.
AHMEDABAD/JODHPUR: JAIPUR: