The death of Amrut Prajapati, a close aide of Asaram Bapu and an important witness in the sexual assault case involving the self-styled godman may affect other witnesses, the prosecution today said.
"He was also a witness in this case and his death followed by an attack on him would work as threat for our other witnesses," said counsel of the girl, Pramod Kumar Verma.
Meanwhile, the lawyer representing Asaram cross-examined the teenage girl, who has levelled sexual assault charges against Asaram.
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More than two weeks after he was shot at from close range, Ayurveda doctor Prajapati died in Ahmedabad on June 10 at his residence.
The cross-examination of the girl by the defence, which had closed about a month back, began today after the court's permission and will continue tomorrow.
On May 14, one of the Asaram's lawyers had quit citing personal reasons leading to which the court had slapped a fine on the defence as no other lawyer was ready to further the proceedings.
Counsel Jagmal Choudhary, who had been representing Asaram in Jodhpur court since the beginning of the case, had withdrawn his 'vakalatnama'.
A fine of Rs 10,000 was slapped on the defence.
After that, a counsel of Asaram moved an application under Section 311 of the CrPC pleading to re-allow the arguments.
The court allowed them to continue with the arguments after depositing a cost of Rs 10,000, which the defence deposited three days ago.
The counsels of all the co-accused of the case have already completed the girl's examination, which had started after closing of the ongoing examination on behalf of Asaram.
