Rajasthan HC Permits Asaram Bapu’s Ayurvedic Treatment Under Police Custody

GG News Bureau
Jaipur, 14th August. The Rajasthan High Court has granted self-styled godman Asaram Bapu permission to undergo Ayurvedic treatment for seven days at a hospital in Maharashtra, despite his life sentence for raping a minor.

Asaram, 83, who has been incarcerated since September 2013, has previously been treated at AIIMS Jodhpur for heart-related issues.

Justices PS Bhati and Munnuri Laxman of the Jodhpur bench authorized the treatment at the Madhavbaug Multidisciplinary Cardiac Care Clinic and Hospital in Pune under police supervision.

Asaram had specifically requested this Ayurvedic treatment and had previously sought a 14-day parole in March, which was denied due to concerns from Pune police about potential threats to law and order during his hospital stay.

Earlier this year, Asaram was allowed Ayurvedic treatment at a private hospital in Jodhpur for about two weeks. His earlier appeals for suspension of sentence on health grounds had been rejected by both the Rajasthan High Court and the Supreme Court.

Asaram was arrested in 2013 in Indore for allegedly raping a teenage girl at his ashram. He was convicted by a special POCSO court in 2018.

Additionally, in January 2023, a Gujarat court convicted him in a separate sexual assault case involving a Surat-based woman and sentenced him to life imprisonment for raping her at his ashram in 2013.