The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday admitted the appeal filed by self-styled godman Asaram’s son Narayan Sai against the life imprisonment awarded to him by a Surat sessions court for rape and unnatural sex with a former disciple.
The appeal was admitted by the division bench of Justice Harsha Devani and Justice VB Mayani, which also condoned the delay of 46 days in approaching the high court. The appeal was filed by Sai last month.
Notably, convicts are supposed to file the appeal against the conviction within a period of three months of the trial court’s pronouncement of the verdict.
LAST CHANCE
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- Sessions court on April 30 awarded life term to Sai after he was found guilty of rape charges
- He was arrested in 2013 and since then is lodged in Lajpore jail in Surat
- Convicts allowed to file appeal within 3 months of trial court’s pronouncement of verdict
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Sai has claimed in his appeal that he has been falsely implicated in a concocted rape case as part of a conspiracy hatched against him and his father.
Asaram has been also accused of rape by the elder sister of the complainant in Narayan Sai’s case.
Sai has contended that the FIR against him was registered after a delay of almost a decade and there is no corroborative evidence, which raises a question on the fabricated FIR.
He has also claimed that the trial court has committed an error in declaring him guilty and the conviction and sentence awarded to him should be quashed and set aside by the high court.
The sessions court had on April 30 awarded life imprisonment to Sai after he was found guilty of the allegations levelled by a former disciple who stayed in his ashram between 2002 and 2005. He was arrested in 2013 and since then he is lodged in Lajpore jail in Surat.
