Gujarat HC notice to state on Narayan Sai's plea for suspension of life sentence in 2013 Surat assault case

Gujarat High Court has issued notice to the Gujarat  government on a plea filed by self-styled godman Narayan Sai, seeking suspension of his life imprisonment sentence in the 2013 Surat rape and sexual harassment case. The matter is likely to be heard on February 26.

Narayan Sai, son of convicted spiritual leader Asaram Bapu, was convicted by the Surat Sessions Court in April 2019 on charges including rape, assault, unnatural offences, and criminal conspiracy under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. He has been serving a life term and is currently lodged in Lajpore Jail since his arrest in 2013.

In criminal appeal challenging the conviction, which is pending before the Gujarat High Court, Sai had argued that he was falsely implicated in a fabricated case as part of a conspiracy targeting him and his father. He has claimed that no such rape incident ever occurred, pointing to the inordinate delay of nearly a decade in filing the FIR, the lack of prima facie and corroborative evidence, and errors in the trial court's findings. Sai had urged the court to quash the conviction and set it aside.

The complainant in the case is the younger sister of a woman who had earlier accused Asaram Bapu of rape at his ashram. Asaram was separately sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018 by a special court in Rajasthan for raping a minor.