HC upholds godman Asaram’s life sentence for raping minor, cancels bail and orders surrender

Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court has upheld the life sentence — imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life — awarded to self-styled godman Asaram Bapu for the rape of a minor girl who was his own devotee, refusing to soften the punishment on grounds of his age and ailments, cancelling the interim bail he was on and ordering him to surrender and be taken into custody forthwith.

A Division Bench of Justice Arun Monga and Justice Yogendra Kumar Purohit pronounced the verdict on May 27, 2026, deciding the appeal that Asaram — real name Asha Ram @ Ashumal, now 86 — had filed against his April 2018 conviction by the Special POCSO Court, Jodhpur. Once among the country’s most powerful spiritual figures, with a following running into lakhs and hundreds of ashrams in his name, the appellant stood before the Court “reverentially addressed as ‘Bapu’ by his devoted followers, many of whom regard him as a self-proclaimed godman and spiritual guide.” He challenged his conviction asserting that he had been “framed by extortionists,” that the case was “a conspiracy of greed,” and that he was “not a predator, but a pawn.”

The Bench did grant him a measure of relief. It set aside his convictions for criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B IPC and gang rape under Section 376-D IPC, along with the corresponding charges under Sections 5(g)/6 of the POCSO Act, holding that the prosecution had not established the “meeting of minds” essential to a conspiracy. In their place, the Court convicted him under Section 376 IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the POCSO Act, while upholding the graver life term under Section 376(2)(f) IPC together with his convictions under Sections 370(4), 342, 506, 354A and 509 IPC, Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act and Sections 7/8 of the POCSO Act. The net effect left the life sentence — “which shall be for the remainder of his natural life” — intact along with the fine. The two co-accused, Shilpi @ Sanchita and Sharad Chandra @ Sharat Chandra, were acquitted of all charges, the Court finding no evidence that they knew Asaram intended to harm the girl when they advised her parents to take her to him.

The case arose from the night of August 15, 2013, at Asaram’s Manai ashram near Jodhpur. The prosecutrix, his devotee since 2006, had been taken there by her parents — themselves disciples — in the belief that he would rid her of the “shadow of ghosts.” Inside his kutiya, the Court found, she was sexually assaulted. Born, as the judgment observed, on the Fourth of July, “the child who came into this world on a day symbolic of freedom, dignity, and liberty” said she “was stripped of all three” that night.

Appearing for Asaram, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat mounted a multi-pronged challenge: that the conviction rested on the uncorroborated “sole testimony” of the prosecutrix, that her medical examination had found an intact hymen and no injuries, that no FSL or DNA testing was done, and that the entire case was a fabricated plot to extort Rs 50 crore. The Bench rejected each contention. On the absence of corroboration, it held: “The evidence has to be weighed and evaluated and not counted or measured by volume. If the sole testimony of the prosecutrix is found reliable and credible, the same cannot be discarded merely for want of corroboration.” The intact hymen was held to be of no consequence, the Court noting that the allegations were of the appellant kissing her private parts and attempting oral penetration — not of forcible vaginal penetration. The extortion theory was discarded on the trial court’s reasoning that a family bent on a pre-planned conspiracy would not have lodged its first report in Delhi while travelling, rather than at Jodhpur.

The Court framed the betrayal in stark terms: “She came to him not as a stranger, but as a disciple. She came with folded hands, not knowing that the very sanctum she sought refuge in had become a predator’s lair.”

Declining the plea for leniency built on the appellant’s frailty, the Bench held that “the shadow of his frailty cannot justify ignoring the victim’s voice. Quiet. Devastating. Irrefutable. To ignore it would be to shake society’s faith in the criminal justice system, and send a wrong message no court must ever send, least of all when the perpetrator hid behind the cloak of a self-styled godman.” Contrasting the two sentences, it added that for the appellant “imprisonment is only physical. His confinement has walls,” whereas the sentence served upon the victim’s soul was “lifelong, written not in ink, but in indelible anguish.”

Ordering him back to jail, the Court cancelled the interim bail granted to Asaram, forfeited his bail bonds and directed that a warrant for his arrest be issued forthwith so that he could be taken into custody to undergo the sentence.

Title: Asha Ram @ Ashumal v State of Rajasthan

Case No.: D.B. Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 123/2018 (connected with D.B. Criminal Appeal (SB) Nos. 622/2018 and 665/2018)

Citation: [2026:RJ-JD:26201-DB]

Counsel for appellants: Mr. Devadatt Kamat, Senior Advocate, with Mr. Rajesh Inamdar, Mr. Nishant Bora and others for Asaram and Shilpi @ Sanchita; Mr. Vineet Jain, Senior Advocate, with Mr. Praveen Vyas for Sharad Chandra

Counsel for respondent: Mr. Deepak Choudhary, AAG, with Mr. K.S. Kumpawat; Mr. P.C. Solanki with Ms. Muskan Moondra for the complainant