Jodhpur:Â A Jodhpur court today rejected the anticipatory bail plea of a warden of one of Asaram Bapu’s ashrams, who is a co-accused in the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl by the self-styled godman.
The District and Sessions court trashed the bail application of Shilpi, who heads the Chhindwara Gurukul ashram in Madhya Pradesh.
Referring to the Shilpi’s role in the alleged conspiracy and “adequate evidence” against her, Judge Manoj Kumar Vyas observed that accepting the bail application of Shilpi was not fit at this stage of the investigation.
Shilpi, apprehending arrest by the police, had moved the application in the court yesterday stating that she has already been interrogated by the police in the case.
But the prosecution counsel Anand Purohit claimed that it was Shilpi who had conspired to send the girl to Asaram in Jodhpur by impressing upon her parents that she was “possessed by the evil spirits”.
After hearing the arguments, the judge rejected her bail application saying that “she is the important link required by the police in order to wrap up the investigation and cannot be given bail.”
Encroachment by Asaram’s ashram removed in Nasik
Nashik: Nashik Municipal Corporation officials on Thursday removed an encroaching structure put up by the Ashram of controversial godman Asaram Bapu in Savarkar Nagar area here.
The unauthorised structure put up in front of the Ashram encroached upon the area reserved for road, civic authorities said.
Ganesh Shinde, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said that NMC workers who pulled down the structure were provided police protection, and though some followers of Asaram Bapu gathered at the spot, there was no untoward incident.
The godman is currently in jail in connection with a case of sexual assault at Jodhpur.
[divide] Source: PTI