New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has ordered jailed rape convict Asaram to return to the Rajasthan High Court with his request on staying the sentence against him. The top court also ordered the high court to hear the matter.
Asaram’s lawyer also requested the Supreme Court to allow his client to take Ayurvedic treatment while in police custody in Maharashtra. The court then told the lawyer to take this request, too, to the Rajasthan High Court.
The Supreme Court in September 2023 denied bail to Asaram. Before that, the Rajasthan High Court had denied bail to him in 2022.
Asaram’s lawyer sought relief saying his client has been in jail for the past nine years, and he is over 80 years old, suffering from serious diseases.
A court in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur in April 2018 sentenced Asaram to life in prison after finding him guilty of raping a minor in his ashram in 2013. His two accomplices were sentenced to 20 years in jail by the court in the same case.
In January 2023, he was also convicted of raping a Surat-based woman at an ashram in Gujarat in 2013.