Asaram's son, Narayan Sai convicted of rape by Surat court, sentence to be pronounced on 30 April

A Gujarat court on Friday convicted Narayan Sai, son of jailed self-styled godman Asaram, in a rape case. The sessions court in Surat will pronounce the sentence on 30 April. In 2013, two Surat-based sisters approached police alleging they were raped by Asaram and Sai. One of them accused Sai of repeatedly raping her between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at his ashram. Asaram has been convicted in a rape case in Jodhpur and is serving a life term. Sai was booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) “including rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, rioting armed with deadly weapon, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy,” reports said. The victim’s older sister accused Asaram of repeatedly raping her between 1997 and 2006. After the sisters lodged a police complaint, Sai was arrested in 2013 after a “country-wide manhunt”. He was also accused of bribing jail officials to the tune of  Rs 13 crore. A Jodhpur court pronounced its verdict on the case against Asaram in April 2018. The self-styled godman was arrested on 31 August, 2013. What are the charges against Asaram? Asaram, 77, was booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for raping a minor girl in Jodhpur’s Manai village. The incident occurred in August 2013. An FIR against Asaram was registered in Delhi’s Kamla Nagar police station on 20 August, 2013, after which the police took the victim for medical tests. Accused of trafficking, Asaram was arrested on 31 August, 2013. The police filed an FIR under sections 342, 376, 354 A, 506, 509/34 of the IPC, sections 23, 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act and Section 8 of the POCSO Act. Asaram was charged for sexual assault, raping and illegally confining a minor, according to 1,300-page chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan Police. The police booked Asaram under multiple non-bailable sections of IPC in August 2013 after the self-styled godman did not appear until 31 August. To evade arrest, Asaram remained inside one of his ashrams in Indore. Clashes broke out between his disciples and the policemen, but he was eventually arrested by the Jodhpur police on 1 September, 2013. With inputs from agencies