Asaram Bapu, the self-styled godman. (Express Archive) Asaram Bapu, the self-styled godman. (Express Archive)

A West Bengal resident, who police claimed was behind the killing of three witnesses and four attempts to murder witnesses in rape cases lodged against self-styled godman Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, has been arrested by the Gujarat ATS and Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch in a joint operation.

Karthik alias Raju Dulalchand Haldar, resident of Ramlochanpur in South 24 Parganas, had become a ‘sadhu’ in 2000 and a follower of Asaram, police said.

ATS officers said Karthik was arrested from Sarona Bazar in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, where he had been hiding. They said Karthik hadn’t taken any weapon training, one reason why four of his targets survived.

“He attended a satsang of Asaram in Delhi in 2000. He joined the Motera Ashram of Asaram on January 11, 2001. He said he was being helped financially by other sadhaks for the attacks on the witnesses. He named four sadhaks at different ashrams and said they were giving him instructions to commit offences against witnesses in these cases,” ATS SP Himanshu Shukla said.

ATS officers claimed Karthik sourced ten countrymade pistols, seven pistols and 94 rounds from gun-runners in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Officers claimed Karthik was responsible for the death of Amrut Prajapati, a former aide of Asaram and a key witness, who was shot at in his Rajkot clinic in June 2014. Kripal Singh, another witness, also succumbed to bullet injuries in June 2015 following an attack in Shahjahanpur, UP.

Akhil Gupta, who worked with Asaram as a cook and testified against him, was also shot dead in January 2015 near his house in Muzaffarnagar in UP. This case is being investigated by CBI.

Mahendra Chawla, personal assistant to Asaram between 2001 and 2005, was also shot at his house in May 2015 in Panipat. In 2014, Lal Thakor, a resident of Chandkheda, was also attacked but he survived.

In September last year , the Ahmedabad DCB arrested a couple from Bengaluru — Vasavraj alias Vasu, a resident of Bijapur in Karnataka, and his wife Sejal Mahesh Prajapati, originally from Daman — for their alleged role in attacks on witnesses. They were among core “sadhaks” of Asaram and conspired to attack witnesses to “teach them a lesson”, ATS officers claimed.

They said Karthik’s father serves in the Department of Post. He studied until Class X in Kolkata and came to Delhi where he completed Class XII and began working in a private firm. He is married and has two children.

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