Asaram Bapu accused of sexual Harassment of a minor Girl!

For nearly two weeks now, there has been a big story going on in Indian media which has attracted the attention of the whole country and I have even seen the story on international media. It is about the alleged sexual harassment of a 16-year-old girl by one of the most known religious gurus of India, called ‘Asaram Bapu’.

Asaram is 72 years old and has achieved what many spiritual gurus dream of: he has about 1400 separate organizations and 400 Ashrams around the whole world, altogether worth 15 thousand crore rupees – which is over two billion US-Dollar! He has a big business producing incense, merchandise for worship and lots of other products which he sells all over the world. When you ask about his number of followers you find every estimate from 40 million to 600 million followers who believe in him and devote themselves to him – although there has been a number of controversies around him!

There is a case in which parents tell that their two children just vanished and they accuse Asaram, his organization and Ashram to have killed and sacrificed their children during a tantric ritual that was done in order to achieve Sidhis! This family is still suffering and waiting for justice, blaming Asaram directly for doing something that they believe is black magic. He definitely claims that he takes out ghosts and spirits during poojas and rituals.

Another issue is the many accusations that he has for illegally occupying land of others. For many of his Ashrams across the world, people say that a part of the land they use was not legally taken in possession!

While he has not really faced any serious actions for any of these cases until now, the current case seems to bring him into some more trouble:

Two devotees of Asaram had given their three children – two sons and one daughter – into the hostel and school of his organization in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. They paid about 4500 US-Dollar per year for the education of their three children and had supported Asaram with donations over the years, totaling nearly 30000 US-Dollar, as per the father’s statement. He told that he had even bought land for Asaram so that he could build us his Ashram there.

One day the parents were informed that their daughter was not doing well, that some kind of ghost had entered her body. They were told that the godman himself will take care of this kind of serious cases and the special ritual that has to be performed to cure her.

Obviously, they wanted her to get better and travelled from their home in Shahjahapur in U.P. to Asaram’s Ashram in Jodhpur, where they met their daughter. She was then sent into Asaram’s private quarters where nobody is ever allowed to disturb him. Her parents, in the meantime, believing that their guru would perform a healing ritual for his daughter, sat in front of the quarters and repeated their own mantras.

From what we can read in the media, the girl was welcomed by Asaram and taken into another backside room. There, she tells, the lights were dimmed and the old man took off all his clothes. Standing fully naked in front of her, he started fondling here, trying to take off her clothes at the same time.

When the teenager resisted and protested, he started threatening her not to tell anybody about the details of their meeting, otherwise all members of her family would be killed! Of course the girl was scared and when she wanted to scream, he placed his hand on her mouth, keeping her from making any sound. He then asked her to perform oral sex on him – which she refused completely.

This much is what we can read and hear in the police and media reports. The girl then came out, crying, to her parents and told them to take her home. Only when they had reached their hometown, she finally told them about what had happened. The father was so angry, he said if she had told him at the Ashram, he might have picked up a stone and killed his former guru with it!

After hearing the horrible story of their daughter’s ordeal, the parents immediately inquired where Asaram would be next in order to arrange a meeting with him. It was in Delhi where they tried to get in to have a talk and ask about their daughter’s report – but they were denied a meeting! So they went straight to the police and filed a report.

The Delhi police transferred the case to Jodhpur where a detailed interrogation of the girl and the people at Asaram’s Ashram ensued. In all their probing, they found the girl to be truthful – while Asaram in a statement even denied ever having been there at that time. An obviously lie – as many people knew he had met her. He then had to correct himself and admit that he was there – while still protesting that he had never done any of the things he is accused of.

On 31st August 2013, Asaram was finally arrested and now the family of this minor girl is hoping to get justice. I will tell you tomorrow why they are not fully sure and why it took such a long time to arrest him.