The self-described god Asaram Bapu was found guilty of raping a teenage follower in 2013. The trial was handed down some time ago, but with the plethora of rape cases everywhere, it’s worth making your case. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. His two accomplices were sentenced to 20 years in prison. The victim’s attorney had previously opined that he expected a life sentence for the defendant. The Times of India at the time had reported that the police had taken unprecedented security measures to prevent any violence from Godman supporters. In a similar case in Haryana, when the man god Ram Rahim was convicted of rape, riots broke out and 23 were killed.
Sentenced
The sentence was read aloud to the 77-year-old self-styled man-god in jail. The police had also enforced section 44 of the IPC at the Jodhpur train station and elsewhere to prevent more than five people from gathering. Baba Asaram also faces another rape charge in Ahmedabad, where he has been accused of raping two teenage girls in 2003.
Asaram
People like Asaram are the bane of India, and dozens of their ilk proliferate across the subcontinent. Asaram was a simple rickshaw shooter until he had the idea of becoming a god man.
He played on the susceptibilities of the Hindus and garnered a large following. His website has 40 million followers. The baba has ashrams scattered throughout India and the world. He has a large following among the Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The slime who was a penniless man in the sixties now has wealth amounting to millions of rupees. His case is similar to that of another man-god, Ram Rahim, who was also convicted of rape and is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Haryana.
At the time it was alleged that Haryana’s Prime Minister Jagdish Khattar was one of his followers and had not made any security arrangements when a crowd of his followers began to gather around the court. This was a mistake, as once the verdict was announced, the crowd went wild and in the resulting violence more than 23 were killed.
Patronage
This time, the police had made elaborate security arrangements to thwart any kind of violence.
Asaram has a large following, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is even alleged to have attended his lectures and speeches. Many other political leaders had sought his blessings. A video of former BJP Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee has also surfaced showing him dancing with Asaram.
Asaram is one of hundreds of those self-styled god-men who are present on the subcontinent. Even in Pakistan, a Muslim Sufi was arrested for making more than 300 women pregnant on a false claim that he could make a lady bear a child. Women flocked to him and ended up on the “noor bed” to have sex with him.
Last word
The bubble of god-men with style is punctured as the public is now realizing that these men are only interested in sexual favors over false claims of salvation.