Asaram brought to hospital near Mumbai for treatment of heart-related ailment

Mumbai: Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is serving a life sentence in Jodhpur Central Jail for raping a minor, has been brought to a medical facility at Khopoli in Maharashtra’s Raigad district for treatment of a heart-related ailment, officials said on Wednesday.

Asaram, 83, who was arrested in September 2013, was brought to the multidisciplinary cardiac care clinic of an Ayurvedic hospital in Khopoli, located 70 km from here, around 8 pm on Tuesday with full police protection, a senior police official said.

He will undergo treatment for some heart-related ailment at the medical facility for the next seven days, he said.

On August 13, the Rajasthan High Court had allowed him to undergo treatment at an Ayurvedic hospital in Maharashtra under police custody.

Accordingly, he was taken to Mumbai by flight, accompanied by a team of Jodhpur Police and two attendants.

On his arrival at the Mumbai airport, Asaram was taken to the hospital in Khopoli, the official said.

Raigad police personnel have been deployed at the hospital as part of security, he said.

While granting the parole to Asaram, the Rajasthan High Court had laid certain conditions, which included that four policemen would be travelling with him. He was also allowed to have two attendants with him.

Asaram’s pleas for suspension of sentence on health grounds were earlier rejected by the high court and the Supreme Court.

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

A Gujarat court had, in January 2023, convicted him in a decade-old sexual assault case involving a woman disciple and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The victim, a Surat-based woman, had accused him of repeatedly raping her at his ashram in 2013. (PTI)