Asaram verdict: Ashram quiet, followers indignant

It was a day like any other outside a sprawling ashram in central Delhi – except that it wasn't.

Followers, trickling into Asaram Bapu's ashram on the Ridge, could not believe that their guru had been sentenced to a life in jail by a Jodhpur court for the rape of a minor teenager.

The Sant Shri Asharamji Bapu Ashram was barricaded, but the disciples walked in one by one, convinced that he had been framed.

A young and passionate Jyoti (name changed), who said she had been a follower of Asaram for 15 years, refused to believe that her "gurudev" could ever have committed a crime like rape.

"Even if Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh came and told me that Bapu had done this, I would not believe them. I would say, 'no, no, no' an infinite number of times," she told PTI.

Many of the followers, she said, had gathered at the ashram after they heard about the verdict this morning.

They were on a fast and were praying inside for the man who "motivated us to move forward with our lives", she said.

"My life would have ended but I am alive only because of Bapu. He taught us to live our lives in this very society, to do good deeds and make people understand what he is," Jyoti said, adding her fight to ensure Asaram's release from jail would never end.

The ashram is inside the forested area of the Ridge, often described as the lungs of Delhi. It is among the 400 complexes that Asaram is believed to have. A small archway with the ashram's name on leads to the complex.

The police have barricaded it, not allowing visitors in.

"We have been here since 6.30 am," a constable said.

Like Jyoti, Jitendra Malik from Shamli, UP, dismissed the parallels being drawn between Asaram and Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was convicted of rape last August.

Having served as an ashram in-charge in Bhilwara and Aligarh for over a decade, yoga instructor B Mukesh termed the allegation a "conspiracy" against the godman.