Gujarat HC extends Asaram's temporary bail in rape case till July 7
Ahmedabad, Jun 27 (PTI): The Gujarat High Court on Friday extended the temporary bail granted to self-styled godman Asaram till July 7 in the 2013 rape case for which he is serving a life sentence.
The division bench of Justices Ilesh Vora and Sandeep Bhatt extended Asaram's temporary bail, granted on March 28 initially for three months, during the hearing of the plea.
Asaram (86) is on bail on medical grounds.
The extension was granted so that his lawyer could submit the necessary documents in his plea, and the matter has been kept for further hearing on July 2.
Notably, the temporary bail granted by Gujarat High Court on March 28 this year is set to expire on June 30.
In his submission, Asaram's lawyer sought an extension of a few days to submit documents, claiming that after the court granted temporary bail on March 28, 10 days were wasted due to the procedure to get orders from the Jodhpur High Court, and he was released on April 7.
"So I request for two days so that if the matter is kept on Monday, I can place the document on record, and even they (respondents) can verify. Then on Monday, in any case, I have to surrender, so lordships may give me one or two days till the matter is pending," he said.
The court, in its order, stated that considering "the peculiar facts of the present case, more particularly, the process of getting the certificate from NALSA (National Legal Services Authority), which according to submission is underway, we are inclined to extend the temporary bail till July 7".
The high court on March 28 granted temporary bail for three months to Asaram as the interim bail granted to him earlier by the Supreme Court was to expire on March 31.
A division bench of the high court then delivered a split verdict, after which a third judge, to whom the matter was referred, ruled in favour of granting him three-month temporary bail.
In January 2023, a court in Gandhinagar sentenced Asaram in a rape case to life imprisonment.
Asaram is also serving a life sentence in another case of raping a minor girl at his ashram in Rajasthan in 2013.
In the present case, he was convicted for raping a woman disciple, who hailed from Surat, on several occasions from 2001 to 2006 when she was living at his ashram at Motera near Ahmedabad.
He was convicted under Indian Penal Code sections 376 2 (C) (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 342 (wrongful detention), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 357 (assault) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
