SURAT: Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu's jailed son Narayan Sai, arrested in a rape case, was today refused permission to attend a Guru Purnima event here on July 31 by a court which rejected his application for one-day bail.
Additional Sessions Court Judge H S Muliya rejected the temporary bail plea which sought release of Sai for a day to attend the religious festival at Asaram Ashram here. As Sai is also an accused in a case of bribery against him and 11 others, he had moved a similar application before designated ACB Court Judge R T Vacchani too. Since the Sessions Court rejected the plea, Sai, accused of rape by a Surat-based woman, withdrew his bail request from the ACB Court as well.
Sai, in his plea before the Sessions Court, had submitted that Asaram Ashram has a long tradition to observe the Guru Purnima festival and he, being the religious leader of the Ashram, should be released for a day to attend the event. Opposing the plea, Special Public Prosecutor P N Parmar told the Court that temporary bail cannot be granted to Sai to attend a religious festival. Attending a religious festival is no ground to grant bail to a rape accused.
The court accepted the argument of the prosecution and rejected Sai's plea. The 42-year-old son of Asaram was booked in November, 2013 in a case of rape filed by one of the two Surat-based sisters, who was an inmate of his ashram here. He was arrested in December, 2013.
In her complaint, the woman had accused Sai of repeated sexual assaults between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at the Surat ashram. Her elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 1997 and 2006 when she was living at his ashram on Ahmedabad's outskirts.
Asaram is currently lodged in a Jodhpur jail in connection with a separate rape case.