Gujarat HC rejects Asaram Bapu’s plea for temporary bail

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday rejected self-styled godman Asaram Bapu’s plea for 20-day temporary bail in a 2013 rape case, noting he can approach the Supreme Court. Asaram is serving life sentences in rape cases in Gujarat and Rajasthan

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday rejected an application for temporary bail filed by self-styled godman Asaram Bapu who is serving a life sentence in a 2013 rape case. A division bench of Justices Gita Gopi and L S Pirzada rejected his plea, observing that at this stage it does not find any reason to entertain his application in view of the liberty granted to him to move the Supreme Court.

The Apex court had in its order last month allowed Asaram to approach it if his health conditions worsened, while also providing him with a round-the-clock caregiver. His application for the suspension of sentence is pending before the Supreme Court.

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Asaram, who is lodged at a jail in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, had sought bail for 20 days, pleading that the Rajasthan High Court granted him 20-day parole in another rape case on August 3, but it would be of no use if he remained in jail in the present case. He approached the Gujarat High Court after his parole request to Gujarat prison authorities was rejected on the ground that his appeal against conviction was pending in the Gujarat High Court.

The state government opposed his bail plea. In January 2023, a court in Gandhinagar convicted Asaram for raping a woman disciple hailing from Surat on several occasions from 2001 to 2006 when she was living at his ashram at Motera near Ahmedabad. Asaram is also serving life sentence in another case of raping a minor girl at his ashram in Rajasthan in 2013.