Narayan Sai, Asaram's son, gets life imprisonment in 2013 rape case; Surat court orders him to pay survivor Rs 5 lakh

Surat: A sessions court in Surat on Tuesday sentenced Narayan Sai, the son of jailed self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, to life imprisonment in a rape case filed against him by a former woman devotee in 2013.

Additional Sessions Judge PS Gadhvi handed down the sentence to Sai and asked him to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the survivor.

Besides Sai, lodged at the Lajpore jail since 2013, the court sentenced his three aides, including two women, to 10 years each in jail after holding them guilty of various offences.

His driver Rajkumar alias Ramesh Malhotra was sentenced to six months in prison.

The court had convicted Sai in the case on 26 April under IPC sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 323 (assault), 506-2 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (conspiracy).

Sai’s three aides, Dharmishtha alias Ganga, Bhavna alias Jamuna and Pavan alias Hanuman, were sentenced to 10 years each, while his driver was convicted under IPC Section 212 (harbouring an offender).

Of the total 11 accused, the court had acquitted six on 26 April.

In 2013, after Asaram was arrested for allegedly raping a girl in Rajasthan, two Surat-based sisters had accused the self-styled godman and his son of sexual exploitation.

While the elder sister accused Asaram of sexual assaults between 1997 and 2006, when she lived at his Ahmedabad ashram, the younger one accused Sai of the crime when she lived at Asaram’s ashram in the Jahangirpura area of Surat between 2002 and 2005.

Sai was arrested from the Delhi-Haryana border in December 2013.