Gujarat HC rejects Asaram's plea for suspension of sentence in rape case

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has rejected a plea for the suspension of sentence filed by jailed self-styled godman Asaram in a 2013 rape case, stating that there were no "exceptional grounds" to consider the application.

Asaram was sentenced to life imprisonment in the case by a Gandhinagar court in 2023.

Refusing to suspend the sentence and grant him bail, a division bench of Justices Ilesh Vora and Vimal Vyas in the order passed on Thursday observed that no case for relief was made out.

The sessions court in January 2023 convicted Asaram in the 2013 rape case, filed by a woman who was living in his ashram near Gandhinagar at the time of the crime.

Asaram is currently lodged in Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan in another rape case.

The high court noted that his contentions about possible delay in the disposal of his appeal, his age and the medical condition were not relevant to the grant of relief.

The court also considered the antecedents including alleged murder of two boys at his Sabarmati ashram and attacks on witnesses and relatives of victims.

"At this stage, considering the totality of the circumstances, the ground of possible delay in appeal and medical ailment, as well as ten years completion in jail, in our view, may not be relevant in considering the prayer of suspension of bail," the court observed.

Asaram's plea said he was the victim of a conspiracy, and the allegations of rape were false. The trial court committed an error while accepting the victim's explanation for delay of 12 years in lodging the complaint, it added.

Asaram's appeal against the conviction in a rape case in Jodhpur is pending before the Rajasthan High Court. His application for suspension of sentence in that case was rejected by the Rajasthan High Court in January this year.