File Photo: Self-Styled Godman Asaram Bapu
A crucial witness in the rape case against the self-styled godman Asaram has been provided with police security, four days after one of the witnesses in the case was shot dead. Nine witnesses in the case have been attacked so far.
Arvind Bajpai, Principal of Sawaswati Shishu Inter College in Shahjahanpur will now be accompanied by a gunman, confirmed Deputy Inspector General RKS Rathore.
Mr Bajpai had issued Transfer Certificate (TC) of the girl, who had alleged that she was raped by Asaram, on the basis of which she was considered minor, Mr Rathore said, adding, the principal had appeared in the court in December 2014 in the case.
Mr Bajpai said that he had received threats over the phone before he appeared in the court in the case to provide evidence. He said that he had requested to Shahjahanpur Superintendent of Police to provide him with security at the time, but was denied.
But after Kripal Singh, another key witness in the case, was shot at on July 10 and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Bareilly, he has been provided security.
Mr Singh in his statement in the case against Asaram, recorded about three months ago, had alleged that people connected to Asaram were threatening him for the last few days.
He was an employee of a transport firm, whose owner's daughter had lodged a case against the 74-year-old Asaram for sexually assaulting her at his ashram near Jodhpur in Rajasthan in 2013. Asaram has been in a jail in Jodhpur since September 2013.
Two months later, Asaram, along with his son Narayan Sai, was booked for the alleged rape of two sisters at their ashram in Gujarat's Surat.
Among the nine witnesses to have been attacked so far, three of them including Mr Singh, have died.