Got certain leads on assailants who shot witness in Narayan Sai rape case, says Haryana Police

Panipat: Haryana Police on Thursday said it was hopeful of arresting the assailants who had on Wednesday allegedly shot a key witness in the rape case against self-styled godman Asaram’s son Narayan Sai.

“We have got certain leads and we are working on those. We are hopeful to make early arrests,” Panipat SP, Rahul Sharma told PTI.

He, however, refused to share more details on the incident as it was under investigation.

“We are carrying out raids in Panipat and neighbouring places to arrest the accused,” he said.

Asked about the condition of the witness, Mahendra Chawla, he said, “Chawla is fast recovering, but he is not a position to speak as of now.”

Some unidentified assailants had yesterday shot and injured Chawla in Sanauli village of Panipat, making him the sixth witness in the case to be attacked.

Sai is lodged in a Surat jail for sexually assaulting a woman in his ashram between 2002 and 2005.

In February, a witness was stabbed by a man at a court premises in Jodhpur while another was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district in January.

Three more persons in the case have survived attacks.

PTI