Supreme Court Refuses To Suspend Sentence Of Asaram's Son Narayan Sai In 2013 Rape Case

The Supreme Court today declined to interfere with a Gujarat High Court order which refused suspension of life sentence of self-styled godman Asaram's son, Narayan Sai, in connection with a 2013 rape case.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale passed an order requesting the High Court to decide Narayan Sai's appeal against conviction and sentence in a timebound manner.

Senior Advocate N Hariharan appeared for Narayan Sai.

To recap, in 2013, two Surat-based sisters approached the police claiming they were raped by Narayan Sai and his father Asaram. In 2019, the sessions court convicted Narayan Sai and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Additional Sessions Judge PS Gadhvi handed down the sentence and asked Narayan Sai to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakhs to the victim. The court also sentenced his three aides, including two women, to 10 years each in jail after holding them guilty of various offences. His driver Rajkumar alias Ramesh Malhotra was sentenced to six months in prison.

On May 4 this year, the High Court dismissed Narayan Sai's plea for suspension of his life sentence, prima facie noting that he was not interested in an expeditious decision on his appeal against conviction and adopted dilatory tactics. With regard to Narayan Sai's contention that he had been incarcerated in 11 years and there was delay in deciding his criminal appeal, the High Court said,

"It is no doubt true that, the applicant has undergone 11 years of his jail term. However, the fact remains that, since 2019 to till date, the applicant-convict has not cooperated in final hearing of the appeal. He had tried to get either temporary bail or permanent bail pending the appeal by filing numerous applications. In the year of 2021, while rejecting the bail application on merits, this Court has fixed the appeal for final hearing. However, it is on record that, the applicant-accused is never ready for hearing the appeal".

It further observed that even during hearing of the application for suspension, when it asked the counsel for Narayan Sai that the court is ready to hear the main appeal on "day-to-day basis", the counsel "upon instructions" stated that, she only had instructions to argue the application for suspension of sentence and upon disposal of the application, was ready to argue the main matter.

"In such circumstances, the convict himself has created a situation for his long incarceration. In other words, the convict himself is the contributory factor for passing the time and thus, now he is not entitled to claim that, due to long incarceration and delay in hearing the appeal, he may be released on bail pending the appeal," the court noted.

Aggrieved, Narayan Sai approached the Supreme Court.

In related news, the top Court recently allowed Narayan Sai's father, Asaram, who is also undergoing sentence after being convicted in a rape case at Rajasthan, to engage a trained caregiver of his choice for assistance in prison. Based on AIIMS' report, the court declined hospitalization for Asaram, however, it said that the court may be approached again if his condition worsens.

Case: NARAYAN @NARAYAN SAI @MOTA BHAGWAN Versus STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANR. Diary No. 29992-2026