The Surat police on Sunday arrested self-styled godman Asaram’s daughter Bharti and wife Lakshmi in the Gujarat sisters’ sexual assault case. The two had conceded that they supplied girls to Asaram. However, the mother-sister duo was released on bail.
During the interrogation, Bharti and Lakshmi admitted that the girls were sent to Asaram on the pretext of ‘Gurudiksha’.
Police sources claimed that Asaram used to exploit girls sexually during a religious ritual, ‘Gurudiksha’, and used to keep them in his ashram. It is also alleged that the girls were brutally treated.
The sisters, who complained against him and his son, were also meted out the same treatment and threatened with dire consequences if they revealed the truth. “That’s the major reason both the sisters maintained silence for 10 years,” said a senior policeman.
In another development, Asaram’s son Narayan Sai and six others were remanded in police custody till December 27 by a Surat court for trying to bribe officials probing the sexual assault case against him and his father.
Sai and his close aides tried to bribe Rs. 13 crore to top police officials and key government officials to weaken the rape case against him. In the process, a Surat-based sub-inspector also allegedly helped him and received Rs. 1 crore..
