A sessions court in Alwar on Wednesday convicted self-styled god-man Kaushalendra Prapannacharya alias Falahari Maharaj for raping a 21-year-old law intern at his ashram last year and awarded him life imprisonment in the case. The court also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on the 61-year-old.
The woman from Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur had accused him of sexually assaulting her when she went to his ashram to meet him. The god-man commands a strong following both in India and abroad and the victim's family was among his followers for several years, claiming to have given large donations to his ashram.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajendra Sharma convicted Falahari Maharaj under Sections 376 (2) (c) (rape by taking advantage of official position) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code after taking on record the statements of 30 witnesses and examining 78 documents and 21 articles submitted to the court.
The court had reserved its judgement for Wednesday after hearing the arguments of the prosecution and defence.
A huge crowd gathered outside the court when the judgment was pronounced. Falahari Maharaj has been lodged in the Alwar Central Jail since his arrest on September 23 last year.
The god-man was arrested from a private hospital in Alwar where he had got himself admitted, three days after the case against him was originally registered in Bilaspur. He had christened himself as Falahari Maharaj with the claim that he had survived by consuming only fruits for the last 25 years.
Shortly after the god-man’s arrest, his photographs earlier with BJP leaders such as Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh and Raman Singh were widely circulated on social media.
The woman, pursuing a law course in Jaipur, stated in her complaint that when she
went to the ashram on the Raksha Bandhan day on August 7 last year, the god-man asked her to stay there in view of the lunar eclipse that day. During the night, he called her in his room and sexually assaulted her.
