Asaram’s daughter distances herself from convicted father

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, April 28

Within days of Asaram Bapu’s conviction in a rape case by the Jodhpur sessions court, his daughter Bharati, who was considered to be his heir apparent, has sought to distance herself from the self-styled godman.

Bharati claimed that she had taken a “different path” long back though the outside world believed that she was very much involved in the day-to-day running of the administration of Asaram ashrams in different cities in Gujarat and outside since the arrest of the godman on rape charges in 2014.

“My situation is like a sandwich. The ashram management believes that I have been independent of the ashram for over 17 years, but the world outside believes that I remain very much involved in the daily affairs of the ashrams,” Bharati told mediapersons outside the Gandhinagar court on Friday.

Bharati had come to the court for a hearing in connection with another rape case against Asaram in which she and her mother Lakshmi have been named accomplices. 

The complainant in this case was a Surat-based woman who accused Asaram of raping her multiple times between 1997 and 2006 at his Motera ashram in Ahmedabad.

In addition to Bharati and Lakshmi, four other women followers — Dhruvben, Jassi, Nirmala and Meera — have been named in the chargesheet for abetment of rape.

However, the hearing in the Gandhinagar court was deferred till May 4 as Asaram on Friday could not appear through 

video conferencing from the Jodhpur jail. 

When Bharati was asked by mediapersons about the Jodhpur sessions court’s judgment convicting her father on rape charges, she commented, “For that, you will have to ask Bapu…We need to respect the verdict of the court. In the past too, such allegations have been levied against saints, whether true or false.”

She also claimed ignorance about her father’s next course of action. “The legal team in Jodhpur does not consult us. They will take a decision on whether to go to the High Court or not. I have no knowledge,” she said.

Good days will come, Asaram says in audio clip

Jodhpur: A purported audio clip of Asaram, serving a life term at a Jodhpur jail, has surfaced online in which the self-styled godman is heard telling a person over phone that his time behind bars is ephemeral and “good days will come”. According to Jodhpur Central Jail DIG Vikram Singh, the 15-minute audio clip might have been recorded during a telephone conversation Asaram had on Friday, two days after a Jodhpur court found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison for raping a teen in his ashram five years ago. The call was made with permission from the jail authorities. “Inmates are permitted to make a call over any two given numbers for 80 minutes in a month. He spoke to a “sadhak” at Sabarmati Ashram on Friday at 6.30 pm. May be this communication was recorded (then) and made viral,” Singh said.  PTI