The Surat Police on Sunday arrested self-styled godman Asaram Bapu’s wife Lakshmi and daughter Bharti who have reportedly conceded that they supplied girls to Asaram. However, the duo were released on bail.
They admitted during interrogation the girls were sent to Asaram on the pretext of “Gurudiksha”. Police sources claimed that Asaram used to exploit girls sexually during the ritual and used to keep them in his ashram. It is also alleged that the girls were brutally beaten.
The sisters, who complained against Asaram and his son were also meted out with the same fate and threatened with dire consequences if they revealed the reality. “That's the major reason both the sisters’ maintained silence for a period of ten years,” said a senior cop.
Meanwhile, Asaram’s son Narain Sai and six others were granted remand by a Surat court up to December 27 for trying to bribe officials investigating sexual assault case against Sai and his father.
On December 19, Sai was remanded to judicial custody by the court for 14 days. But the police demanded remand to investigate into bribery bid of Rs 13 crore, which was foiled by the Surat cops.
Sai, who was declared an absconder after the complaint by the two sisters, was nabbed on December 4 from Delhi-Haryana border and brought to Surat on a transfer warrant.