On Asaram Bapu - The rise and fall of the guru // पकड़ा गया आसाराम का झूठ, पौरुष टेस्ट पॉजिटिव आया
... By his own account, Asaram's arrival as a "divine soul" had been foretold. Last December 1, he told a judicial panel someone had made the prediction to his mother. The panel was probing the death of two students of the Ahmedabad ashram in 2008. From Asaram's deposition, and from a book published the ashram, Sant Asaramji ki Jeevan Jhanki, emerge details of his life from his boyhood to the guru he became.
He was born Asumal on April 17, 1941, in Berani village in Sindh province, now in Pakistan. After Partition, his family migrated to Maninagar, Ahmedabad, where it set up a business in coal and firewood. Asaram dropped out of Jai Hind High School at class III, after his father's death. Going by the book, his tryst with spirituality came about following a series of escapes from home between the ages of 15 and 23. He ran away to an ashram at 15, eight days before his scheduled wedding, before his family persuaded him to return. He married Laxmi Devi but left again at age 23, before spiritual guru Leelashahji Maharaj sent him back home from Nainital. Thirteen days after returning, he went off to another ashram, was persuaded again to return, but went once again to Leelashahji, who the book says accepted him as his disciple this time. On October 7, 1964, Leelashahji named him Sant Shri Asaramji Maharaj.
Asaram returned to Ahmedabad on July 8, 1971, according to the book. On January 29, 1972, he built a hut at Motera village, on the banks of the Sabarmati. He converted it into an ashram in 1973, starting with five to 10 followers, he told the judicial panel. In his deposition, a copy of which The Indian Express has accessed, he conceded he is the settler or chairman of the 40 gurukuls nationwide, but insisted they are being managed not by him but by committees and trustees. His wife looks after the women's wing of the Ahmedabad ashram, along with daughter-in-law Janaki Devi and daughter Bharati Devi, whose husband is settled in the US. Asaram's son Narayan Sai, 35, a dropout from class XII, helps his father run the ashram.
Growth
The ashram owes much of its early growth to successive Gujarat governments. The Congress governments in 1981 and 1992 allotted it 14,515 sq m, and the BJP governments in 1997 and 1999 around 25,000 sq m for expansion. The way the BJP government has dealt with allegations of encroachment reflects its changing equations with Asaram, who is believed to have fallen out with Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In recent years, it has taken over land from the ashram in Ahmedabad and Sabarkantha. In 1997, it had tried to regularise the ashram's possession of land that was the subject of litigation.
The litigation was over 34,000 sq m in Surat. The government had acquired over 50,000 sq m in 1976 for "public purpose" but most of the land remained unused when a flood protection wall was completed in 1982. "Asaram encroached on the open land, and gradually took over more and more," says Anil Vyas, who owned the largest chunk. He went to the high court, which in 2008 ordered the land returned to the farmers. In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the order. Vyas, however, says he is yet to get the land back. "There are several issues involved," says district collector Jayprakash Shivhare. "We will check the status and see what decision should be taken." In 2009, after Asaram had fallen out with the government, revenue minister Anandiben Patel told the assembly that the Ahmedabad ashram had encroached on 67,059 sq m; the government took it over on January 8, 2010.
The government also took over 70 acres agricultural land bought by Asaram's family in three villages of Sabarkantha. They had allegedly forged papers procured from Kutch to show themselves as farmers. Ashaben Shah, mamlatdar of the taluka under which the villages fall, says the deal was cancelled and the land taken back, though no action was initiated for the forgery. Alongside the ashram's expansion to other states came similar allegations. The Bihar State Religious Trust, for instance, alleges Asaram and his followers had usurped land in Patna in 2006 for a temple. The Bihar trust went to court and got the land vacated following a 2009, says its chairman, Kisore Kunal.
In MP, independent MLA Paras Saklecha alleges that Asaram's followers have encroached on more than 200 acres in Ratlam and set up a large temple. The ashram claims it was built by a trust that had been leased the land by Jayant Vitamins Company, shut since 1997. And in Rajasthan, disciples Bhanwar Lal Soni and Satya Narayan Dhoot, who had helped Asaram set up his Jodhpur ashram, have gone to court alleging their land has been encroached.
What brought such allegations into public focus was the deaths at the two gurukuls and the outcry that followed.
Black magic
In July 2008, young cousins Dipesh and Abhishek Vaghela of the Ahmedabad ashram were found dead. Mutilated with some vital organs missing, the bodies were recovered from the riverbed of the Sabarmati next to the ashram. It led to an agitation with allegations that the boys had died in the course of black magic. The same month, two boys, aged 4 and 5, were found dead in Asaram's Chhindwara gurukul. There were no injuries on the bodies. A few days later, police arrested a 14-year-old for killing the boys claiming he had wanted the gurukul closed because he was fed up with the regimented life there. The parents junked the theory and demanded a CBI probe while the police admitted the "motive is complicated".
In Ahmedabad too, the boys' fathers demanded a CBI probe and went on a hunger-strike. A number of organisations held protest rallies in Ahmedabad and Surat. The Modi government, still close to Asaram then, approached the boys' parents and they ended their agitation. The government set up a probe commission under retired high court judge D K Trivedi. It was before this panel that Asaram deposed last year. A former disciple, Raju Chandak, deposed about black magic being practised in the ashram and said this had probably led to the cousins' death. In his deposition, Asaram conceded he believes black magic exists, but said he does not practise it. He claimed he had had an encounter with a bhoot some 15 years earlier in Mandal village, Ahmedabad.
Muscle
The deaths and the outcry went on to highlight the muscle power by Asaram and his disciples wield. In July 2008, ashram sadhaks beat up protesters and journalists too. "I was with my cameraman covering the attack when they beat us up," says Gopi Maniar of Aaj Tak. In November 2009, an agitation by followers turned violent outside the Gandhinagar district collectorate. Several policemen were injured. Ashram authorities blamed it on outsiders. That protesters were seeking action against Chandak, the former disciple who would go on to depose against the guru, and against the daily Sandesh for a cartoon of Asaram. "We had published a cartoon showing Asaram creating a scene at the airport over a security check. It was a criticism of this behaviour," says Sandesh owner Falgun Patel, responding to questions. "But Asaram felt it was offensive and we carried a clarification that we had not intended to hurt anyone's feelings."
After his deposition, Chandak survived an apparent murder attempt. On December 5, 2009, he filed an FIR at Sabarmati saying he had been fired on at close range. The attempt-to-murder case against Asaram is pending. In Vadodara, Asaram was once photographed punching a disciple who had accidentally stepped on his toes while trying to prevent him from being mobbed by admirers. Last February, he allegedly kicked a disciple who had bent to touch his feet in Vidisha. And in Raipur on Sunday, supporters protesting his arrest assaulted journalists.
Friends, rivals
Former MP chief minister Uma Bharti remains an unabashed supporter of Asaram. So does Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh. In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Vasundhara Raje are said to be among his admirers. Gujarat's Amit Shah is known to be close to him, as is jailed IPS officer D G Vanzara. Until 2009, Asaram was said to be close to Modi too. He had been invited as a chief guest at a project to rejuvenate the Saraswati by filling with water large tracts of land, where the river is believed to have flown, at Sidhpur town in Mehsana. BJP leaders say the project was the brainchild of Asaram himself. It was abandoned because of its cost... Read more:
जोधपुर: यौन हमले के आरोपी आसाराम का एक और झूठ सामने आया है। पौरुष यानी यौन क्षमता की जांच में काबिल पाए गए हैं, जबकि वह 75 साल की उम्र में खुद को यौन क्षमता के हिसाब से नाकाबिल बताते रहे हैं। पुलिस के मुताबिक, इस बारे में आसाराम ने पहले झूठ कहा था कि उन्हें न्यूरोलॉजिकल डिसऑर्डर है। गिरफ्तारी के बाद से आसाराम जांच कर रही जोधपुर पुलिस के सवालों से घिरे हुए हैं। आसाराम से पूछताछ कर रही जोधपुर पुलिस ने एक प्रेस कांफ्रेंस कर बताया है कि आसाराम मानसिक और शारीरिक रूप से स्वस्थ हैं। साथ ही उन्होंने बताया कि अब तक वे सवालों के जवाब दे रहे हैं। जोधपुर पुलिस ने बताया कि वे आज आसाराम को कोर्ट में पेश करेंगे।
अब तक आसाराम ने पुलिस पूछताछ में खुद को बेकसूर बताया है। आसाराम ने पुलिस के सामने कहा है कि उन्होंने इस लड़की को कभी नहीं बुलाया। सूत्रों के मुताबिक, आसाराम ने पुलिस के सामने अपनी सफाई में कहा है कि उन्हें इस बात का पता नहीं था कि ये लड़की बीमार है और उसे आश्रम में इसलिए आने दिया गया, क्योंकि उसके माता-पिता मेरे भक्त हैं। उधर, ऐसी खबरें आ रही हैं कि जोधपुर में आसाराम के समर्थक मीडिया पर और पुलिस की गतिविधि पर निगरानी रख रहे हैं। इतना ही नहीं ये लोग पत्रकार के भेस में घूम रहे हैं, तस्वीरें ले रहे हैं और पुलिस से मामले में हो रही अपडेट्स भी ले रहे हैं और तस्वीरे भी खींच रहे हैं।
अब तक आसाराम ने पुलिस पूछताछ में खुद को बेकसूर बताया है। आसाराम ने पुलिस के सामने कहा है कि उन्होंने इस लड़की को कभी नहीं बुलाया। सूत्रों के मुताबिक, आसाराम ने पुलिस के सामने अपनी सफाई में कहा है कि उन्हें इस बात का पता नहीं था कि ये लड़की बीमार है और उसे आश्रम में इसलिए आने दिया गया, क्योंकि उसके माता-पिता मेरे भक्त हैं। उधर, ऐसी खबरें आ रही हैं कि जोधपुर में आसाराम के समर्थक मीडिया पर और पुलिस की गतिविधि पर निगरानी रख रहे हैं। इतना ही नहीं ये लोग पत्रकार के भेस में घूम रहे हैं, तस्वीरें ले रहे हैं और पुलिस से मामले में हो रही अपडेट्स भी ले रहे हैं और तस्वीरे भी खींच रहे हैं।
