Asaram moves fresh plea in Raj HC for interim bail

Self-styled godman Asaram has moved a fresh plea in the Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur to avail interim bail granted by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

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A Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal on Tuesday had granted interim bail to Asaram on medical grounds till March 31.

This is the first time Asaram has received any major relief from any of the courts he has approached so far since his arrest in August 2013.

The apex court had granted relief to Asaram in a rape case pertaining to Gandhinagar, in which the sessions court had convicted him in January 2023 and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

But this relief will not be enough for Asaram to come out from the Jodhpur Central Jail, where he has already been serving a life imprisonment in a separate rape case involving a teenage girl of his 'gurukul'.

One of the counsels representing him at Jodhpur, Nishant Bora, said the apex court relief had been given in another case and would not be enough for him to avail this relief until he got the similar relief from the high court. "So, we have moved an application in the high court in the light of the order of the Supreme Court with a similar prayer of suspension of sentence," Bora said.

"The grounds this plea has taken are the old age and physical ailments, apart from the long period he has already served in the jail," he added.