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| File of Narayan Sai (Pic: PTI) |
NEW DELHI (AA) - The son of a prominent Indian spiritual leader facing allegations of sexual assault, who has been on the run for two months, was arrested by Delhi police in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Forty one year old Narayan Sai, who teaches yoga and meditation at 400 ashrams across India and his father Asaram Bapu, 72, a self-styled ‘godman and guru’ are both accused of rape by two sisters.
The sisters allege that the father-son duo raped them at their ashrams in Gujarat. The younger sister says Narayan Sai raped her repeatedly between 2002 and 2005 at Asaram's ashram in Surat. Her older sister says Asaram Bapu raped her between 1997 and 2006 while she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
Police sources told Anadolu Agency that Sai was dressed in disguise as a Sikh man wearing a red turban when he was arrested along with his aides on the Delhi-Haryana border. He is expected to be produced in court this afternoon after which he is likely to be handed over to Gujarat police where the alleged rape took place in Bapu’s ‘Ashram’ (centre for spiritual activity) in Surat city in Gujarat state.
The controversial ‘godman’ Bapu has been in jail for more than three months as his bail plea has been rejected repeatedly by various courts of the country.
Bapu was first detained on September 1, 2013 and later formally arrested at his biggest ‘ashram’ in Indore city of Central north state of Madhya Pradesh.
Many accuse the police in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan state of dragging their feet in moving against the self-styled godman, whom his followers call ‘Bapu’ or ‘father’.
Some leaders of the right-wing Hindu nationalist party BJP, India’s main opposition party, have spoken in favor of Bapu, while Congress and other parties maintained that he must be treated like any ordinary person accused of crime.
Anadolu Agency, December 4, 2013
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