'In prison for a decade, is 85 years old': Court fast-tracks Asaram Bapu plea

The Gujarat High Court has decided to prioritise the petition of godman Asaram Bapu against his conviction in a rape case after noting that he was 85-years-old and had served 10 years in prison.

The High Court will start hearing Asaram Bapu's plea to suspend his prison sentence from April 4, a report in Bar and Bench said.

"He has undergone 10 years in prison and is 85-years-old. We will hear the main appeal itself instead of his plea for suspension of sentence," a division bench of Justices AS Supehia and Vimal Vyas said.

"Hearing of the main appeal or the plea to suspend sentence would need a similar amount of time. Thus, we will hear the main appeal from April 4," the court further said.

Last year, Asaram Bapu was convicted by a trial court in Gujarat for raping a woman disciple on several occasions at his Surat ashram in 2013.

He was also convicted by a POCSO court in Jodhpur and sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a teen girl in his ashram. He is serving a life sentence in Central Jail, Jodhpur.

The FIR, which was lodged in Ahmedabad, mentioned that the woman disciple was allegedly confined by Asaram in his ashram and was raped repeatedly from 2001 to 2006.

The godman, in his petition challenging the conviction, claimed that the entire case appeared to be "fake, fabricated, concocted" and the result of an after-thought by the prosecution.

The plea also claimed that the case was a "well-planned conspiracy" hatched by the prosecution witnesses who appear to be "dissatisfied and unhappy" with the working of his ashram.