He was popularly adored by millions of his followers the world over as Asaram Bapu, implying a father-figure to his fold but that did not hinder him to rape a 16-year-old girl, who had entered his ashram as an ardent devotee and had been permitted to stay there by her father who was a trusted supporter of the godman, only to be exploited to his fullest satisfaction. This is the story of a self-styled and man-created saint on earth, who began his career from rags but through cunning and deceitful ways was able to hoodwink the public and manage to amass wealth in thousands of crores of rupees and earned such a repute of having more than 400 ashrams in different parts of the world.
Such was his clout over his supporters that nine of the witnesses who were to depose before the court were attacked and three of them were even killed. And now after conducting proper investigation and giving a fair and impartial trial, when the Jodhpur special court has pronounced the severe punishment of life imprisonment till death, his unmoved and resolute followers instead of being ashamed for falling prey to the guiles of the reckless godman have still been defending him, going to the extent of saying that he is innocent and that he has been wrongly framed. Other hardliners have even gone to the extent of saying that it is a conspiracy to malign their esteemed religion.
Do we need anything more to unfurl the stupidity and hypocrisy of the unmindful and heedless devotees, who with their craze for fantasy and blind beliefs have only been creating and elevating deceitful gurus to endless recognition, thereby only encouraging fake people to share the spoils of religious pedestal? Let us recall that in recent times there have been other convictions of our much sacrosanct godmen, notable among them is the Dera Sachha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who had erected almost an independent empire of his own, greatly aided by his blind supporters, but who was found involved in some of the worst charges like rape and murder.
Such covert misdeeds are not confined only in our country. We are aware how parts of Europe, America and Australia were wrecked by the scourge of paedophile, where the innocence of hundreds of children was mired and ruined by the insatiable Catholic clergy. The guilty men in the echelon might have been defrocked by the Church but were they made to stand trial in the court of law, as it was a crime against the society? Or were they let off fearing that they enjoy immunity, and action on them would invoke the wrath from above?