Gujarat HC extends Asaram’s temporary bail by a month, calls it ‘final extension’
Ahmedabad, Jul 3 (PTI): The Gujarat High Court on Thursday extended self-styled godman Asaram’s temporary bail by one more month, but made it clear that it would be the “final extension”.
Sentenced to life imprisonment in a 2013 rape case, Asaram (86), is on bail on medical grounds.
The division bench of Justices Ilesh Vora and PM Raval extended Asaram’s temporary bail by one more month. Before the bail granted to him by the court on March 28 expired on June 30, the court had granted him an interim extension till July 7.
During a hearing on Thursday, Asaram’s lawyer sought that the bail be extended for three more months. However, the HC said it would extend the bail for only one more month and that it would be the “final extension”. A detailed order is awaited.
Asaram had approached the high court when the interim bail granted to him by the Supreme Court till March 31 on medical grounds was coming to an end, as the apex court had directed him to do so if he needed any extension.
The division bench of the high court had then delivered a split verdict, after which a third judge to whom the matter was referred granted him three-month temporary bail.
In January 2023, a court in Gandhinagar had sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment after convicting him a rape case. Asaram is also serving 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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UP Cong chief Ajay Rai hospitalised after fainting, stable
Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai was hospitalised here after he fell unconscious due to low sodium levels, party leaders said on Saturday.
They said he was admitted to Medanta Hospital on Friday evening and is stable.
"Ajay Rai was admitted to Medanta Hospital in Lucknow at around 6 pm on Friday after he fell unconscious as his sodium levels had dropped. He fell unconscious at his residence in Lucknow. For the entire day, he was engaged in party programmes and had also gone to the airport," Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi told PTI.
Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told PTI, "Now, he (Ajay Rai) is stable and I am also reaching Lucknow."
Medanta Hospital Director Dr Rakesh Kapoor told PTI that Rai collapsed at his home on Friday evening and was subsequently admitted to the hospital's emergency ward.
Medical examinations revealed that Rai was suffering from a sodium deficiency and elevated blood pressure. Doctors administered immediate treatment and he is doing significantly better now, Kapoor said.
A team of doctors is monitoring his health. Rai is conversing with others and his condition is stable, he added.
In a post on X late Friday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Rai a speedy recovery.
Rai hails from Varanasi and had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections against Modi from the parliamentary constituency. The Congress appointed him as the Uttar Pradesh unit chief in 2023.
