Here is all you need to know about Asaram's rags to riches story which ended in jail

The self-styled godman, Asaram Bapu, who has been convicted of raping a minor inside his ashram, made millions of rupees, acquired great political connections, and yet was found in the wrong side of the law. 

The story of this godman starts from a poverty-ridden childhood to being one of the richest guru’s with assets worth Rs 10,000 crore. Asumal Harpalani, also know as Asaram Bapu, came a long way in the name of faith. Asumal was seven-years old when he came to Gujarat from Pakistan’s Sindh after partition. His father Taumal worked in different cities in Gujarat before moving to Rajasthan’s Ajmer.  Asaram Bapu had then started ferrying Ajmer Sharif Dargah pilgrims on a tonga. He stood out in his work because Asaram’s tonga was the only one which had cushioned seats while the most of the tongas had wooden boards. 

Asaram as a kid was ambitious and wanted to become rich. He also participated in a tonga race from Ajmer to Sarwar during the annual Sarwar Urs.  He went back to Ahmedabad after plying his tonga for a few years, and no one in Ajmer heard about him until he hit fame as a godman with lakhs of followers.  Asaram learnt meditation from his mother and ran away at the age of 15 to an ashram in Bharuch. He lived in several other ashrams, and Lilashah, his spiritual guru, named him Asaram Bapu. Soon after this he began preaching spiritualism.

Asaram now has assets worth Rs 10,000 crore and over 400 ashrams in India. His magazines — Lok Kalyan Setu and Rishiprasad — have over 14 lakh subscriptions. The grey-haired and bearded guru, who studied till Class 4, started attracting attention when he began meditating by a modest hut near the Sabarmati River back in 1972. Soon, people were flocking to his hut and he had begun gaining popularity as Sant Asaramji Bapu.
It wasn’t long before the hut had spawned into a full-fledged ashram. Soon, new ashrams had come up in various parts of the country, including a sprawling complex in Delhi’s protected Ridge area.
Even today, many of his disciples believe that he was jailed and convicted on false charges.

“Even if Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh come and tell me that Bapu was wrong, I will still say, ‘No, No, No’,” a young disciple said. Asaram is married to Laxmi Devi and they have two children - son Narayan Sai, who is also behind bars, and daughter Bharti Devi. The guru first ran into trouble in 2008, when two pre-teenagers — cousins Dipesh and Abhishek Vaghela who lived in Asaram’s gurukul in Motera — were found dead on the riverbed near his ashram. The two cousins’ parents had alleged that they were killed in Asaram’s ashram where they claimed black magic was practised. The state CID had in 2009 booked seven followers of Asaram in the death case. 

But Asaram fell from public grace in 2013, after he was arrested for a minor teenager’s rape in Rajasthan. After that, two Surat-based sisters also accused him and his son of sexual exploitation. The police on October 6, 2013, registered complaints filed by the two sisters - one against Asaram and another against Narayan Sai - of rape, sexual assault, illegal confinement and other charges. The case is being tried in the Gandhinagar court. He was also accused of grabbing land for building his ashrams in Surat and Ahmedabad.  His followers were held for threatening and assaulting witnesses in rape cases against him and his son after they were arrested.

Asaram has also courted controversy in recent years with his outspoken -- and debatable views -- on issues such as Valentine’s Day and the Nirbhaya killing.  Asaram Bapu was politically well connected and as his website claims he has devotees like former Prime Minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vjapayee, LK Advani and veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal.