'She's as guilty as her rapists': Guru Asaram Bapu sparks outrage by blaming girl for the gang rape that killed her

Asaram Bapu reportedly claimed the Delhi gang-rape victim was as much to blame for the assault as her attackers

Controversial spiritual guru Asaram Bapu has sparked outrage by suggesting that the Delhi gang rape victim was equally responsible for the crime as her attackers.



Asaram said the victim should have called the rapists her brothers and begged them to stop. This would have saved the life and honour of the girl, he said.



Addressing his followers, Asaram said that when the girl encountered the six drunk men she should have taken God's name and could have held the hand of one of the men and said "I consider you as my brother" and should have said to the other two "Brother I am helpless, you are my brother, my religious brother".



'Taken God's name'



"She should have taken God's name and held their hands and feet... then the misconduct wouldn't have happened."



He also went on to say, "Mistake is not committed from one side.



"The accused were drunk. If the girl had chanted hymns to Goddess Saraswati, then she wouldn't have entered the bus..."



Putting the blame equally on the girl, Asaram said that one cannot clap with one hand.



He added that he was against harsher laws against the rapists as he feels these laws will be abused.



"We have often seen that such laws are misused," he said, adding that the Dowry Act was the biggest example of such misuse.



Condemned



The remarks drew widespread condemnation. Slamming Asaram, the male friend of the gang rape victim said the guru should be punished for his dirty remarks.



"What does he mean... He should be punished as making such comments is also a crime," he said.



BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said Asaram's remark was "regrettable, deeply disturbing and painful".



The Congress asked Asaram to withdraw his remark. "It is unfortunate that responsible people are making such statements. Some strange statements are coming from some quarters. They should refrain from making such remarks," Congress spokesman P.C. Chacko said in New Delhi.

Controversial



Asaram is no stranger to controversy. He was named in an FIR after one of his devotees, Raju Chandok, was shot at in Ahmedabad after he deposed before the Justice D.K. Trivedi Commission.



The commission is probing the mysterious deaths of two pre-teen boys at Asaram's ashram in Ahmedabad in 2008.



Chandok had levelled various allegations against Asaram and his son, including sexual immorality. It was before the same commission that Mahendra Chawla, one-time personal assistant of Asaram's son Narayan Sai, alleged he had seen Sai performing gory rituals over corpses on at least three occasions in Jhabua, Ranchi and Himmatnagar.



Chawla alleged that Sai, clad in a black outfit, used to perform these macabre rituals over corpses with a human skull kept over them. Chawla parted ways with Sai and settled in Thane in 2005.



Asaram's ashram was also served notices for land-grabbing in Ahmedabad, where it had encroached upon 67,000 sqm land in Motera, which the government admitted in the assembly in February 2009.



The ashram also embarrassed the state government by grabbing the land of one Anil Vyas in Surat, where the ashram was built.



Vyas took legal action, and the court ruled in his favour.



Last year, Asaram called for February 14 to be designated as a day for worshipping parents.







Inquiry into PCR response

The ministry of home affairs has ordered a probe into the allegations of the friend of the Delhi gang rape victim that police response to their distress call after the incident was slow.



A joint secretary-level officer of the ministry will investigate the claim by the software engineer that even after reaching the spot on the night of December 16, the police were arguing over the jurisdiction of the case and were hesitant to lift the 23-year-old girl, losing crucial time.



The probe will also look into the counterclaim by the Delhi Police and check the logbooks of the Police Control Room vans which came to the spot, where the girl and her friend were dumped by the six men after the gang rape.



Ironically, it was Union home secretary R.K. Singh, who earlier in a joint press conference with Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, had praised the police for doing an outstanding job.



He had said the PCR van reached the spot within four minutes of the call. The Delhi Police have denied the allegation about any time being wasted over jurisdictional issues since PCR vans are controlled centrally and do not have a jurisdiction unlike police stations.



Home ministry sources said they do not want any controversy over the issue, hence a probe to look into all claims and counter-claims has been set up.



Sources also indicated that the probe will be wound up at the earliest.



"There will be no delay and we will ensure that the correct facts come out. If anybody is found wanting strict action will be taken," said a senior official of the ministry.



A police van believed to be carrying the five gang rape accused enters the Saket District Court





In-camera rape trial

By Sana Shakil in New Delhi

Irked by rowdy protests and nuisance created by some lawyers in the courtroom, a Delhi court on Monday ordered in-camera proceedings in the gang rape and murder case of a paramedical student, thus banning the media from reporting the case.



Metropolitan magistrate Namrita Aggarwal passed the order after police asked the court to invoke in-camera proceedings in the case citing fears over the safety of the accused in the case, if they were produced in an open court.



Five of the six suspects were to be produced in court on Monday afternoon, but the proceedings were delayed by two hours with a massive crowd of lawyers, onlookers, police and scribes jam-packing the courtroom.



The magistrate asked the crowd to make room for the accused to enter, but despite some space being made the police refused to bring in the accused until the court was completely cleared.



The police's stand, and commotion created by the lawyers present, compelled the judge to pass a restraining order which said: "An unprecedented situation has arisen where members of the bar and public persons even unconnected with the case have started converging in the courtroom. The courtroom has become jam-packed with lots of disturbance from different nooks and corner. It has become extremely impossible to proceed with the case. I'm invoking Section 327 (2)(3) of CrPC. Hence, all public persons and everybody present in the courtroom are directed to vacate the court room."



The court duly barred the media from reporting any matter in the case saying, "It shall not be lawful to print or publish any matter or content in this case except with the permission of this court."



The court witnessed high drama when lawyers volunteered to defend the five accused.



Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma showed his willingness to defend the accused. Another lawyer V.K. Anand, who claimed to be a Supreme Court lawyer, said, "To ensure a fair trial, I be appointed as amicus curiae and be allowed to defend the accused."



Meanwhile, the proceedings related to the sixth accused, who is reportedly a minor, was heard separately by the Juvenile Justice Board. According to sources, the board asked the principal of the minor's school to produce more documents to corroborate that the accused is a minor.