 "Supreme Court to hear Asaram Bapu's bail plea in rape case")
The Supreme Court in Monday will hear the bail plea of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is accused of two rape cases.
Jodhpur police arrested Asaram on August 3, 2013, and since then he is in prison. A teenager had accused Asaram of sexually assaulting her during celebration in a village near Jodhpur ashram.
He knocked the doors of the apex court seeking bail on health ground, in connection with the two rape cases registered against him.
The Gujarat Government had earlier told the top court division bench that the rape case registered against Asaram would very likely proceed in an expeditious manner, adding that the trial would be completed within six months so the bail should not be granted to him in the case.
The apex court had in October last month sought the response of the Centre and five states on a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged murder of children through black magic and attacks on ten witnesses in Asaram Bapu rape cases.
The petitioners have prayed for a court-monitored investigation by a SIT or the CBI into attacks on 10 witnesses, murder of three witnesses, into the murder of a child for black magic by Narayan Sai and Asaram in Jhabua Madhya Pradesh, into the mysterious deaths of two children at the Motera Ashram, Gujarat and two more children at Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh and for protection of the life of the witnesses, who have been attacked and their families by Central Security Force (BSF, CRPF, CISF or others) and for a National Witness Protection Program.
