Surat: A local court here today awarded life sentence and Rs Five lakh fine to Narayan Sai, the son of self-styled controversial godman Asaram, in a sensational rape and sexual assault case lodged over six years ago by one of the lady disciple of his father.

Three of his disciples who had helped him in the crime including two woman Ganga and Jamuna and one Hanuman have been given 10 years jail terms for each of them and six months jail to one R Malhotra who drove Sai’s vehicle during his absconding period. All the convicts would be able to file appeal in the high court in 60 days time.

During the hearing on the point of quantum of punishment today, Counsel of Sai, citing various earlier orders of the High Court and the Supreme Court requested the court to give lowest possible punishment to him as the case was filed years after the alleged incident. He also said that the said victim was adult at the time of incident and no force or temptation was used. The public prosecutor on the other hand sought maximum punishment for the culprit and also a compensation for the victim. The court had not accepted the defence council pleas and gave life term to Sai.

The court of district and sessions judge Pratap Gadhvi had held Sai and 4 other accused including two woman and one man disciple guilty on April 26. The court had acquitted 6 of the total 11 accused. He been held guilty under section 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sex), 354 ( Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty ), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 114 (presence of abettor in the crime) of the IPC.

Former disciples of his father, Ganga and Yamuna (both women) and Hanuman and one R Malhotra who was driving his car when he was on a run after lodging of the case were also held guilty.

Narayan Sai (40) was arrested from Pipli near Haryana’s Kurukshetra in December 2013 after two sisters from Surat filed rape complaints against him and his father Asaram in October that year In Jahangirpura police station here. The younger sister had alleged that Sai had repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her while both of them were living at Asaram’s ashram. She was living in Asaram Ashram here between 2002 and 2005.

The case against Asaram by the elder sister was transferred to Ahmedabad as the place of occurrence in her case was Ahmedabad Ashram of Asaram situation in Motera area of the city. She had accused Asaram of raping her several time between 1997 to 2006. The case is being heard by a court in Gandhinagar.

Sai was lodged in the central jail in Lajpore here since his arrest in 2013. He was on a run for almost two months after the filing of the case. Sai was also made accused in a sensational bribery case involving policemen to weaken the cases against him and his father. In September last year his estranged wife Janki had lodged a complaint of harassment against him and Asaram in a police station in neighbouring Rajashtan. She had alleged that he had also married to one of his disciples.

DeshGujarat