Asaram Bapu filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking suspension of life imprisonment in a rape case.

In January 2023, a sessions court in Gandhinagar found Asaram Bapu guilty under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a rape case in 2013 for repeatedly raping a female student at a Surat ashram.

An appeal against this judgment of the trial court is pending before the Gujarat High Court. Meanwhile, Asaram filed an application in the High Court seeking his temporary release from prison.

In August this year, the Gujarat High Court refused to grant this petition to suspend his life sentence. The High Court concluded that there were no exceptional grounds for temporarily releasing Asaram from prison while his appeal against the sentence remained pending.

This led to an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to the application filed through lawyers Rajesh Inamdar and Shashwat Anand, Asaram’s conviction is riddled with contradictions and is based solely on the uncorroborated testimony of the complainant.

According to Asaram, there is no medical or independent evidence to support the allegations and he was falsely accused of tarnishing his reputation and driving him out of the ashram.