Rajasthan high court notice to Rajasthan government over conviction of Asaram

JODHPUR

: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday admitted appeal against conviction of Asaram and issued notice to the state government. The defence will now move application seeking bail for Asaram who had been sentenced for life on April 25 for sexual exploitation of a teenaged student of his gurukul.

"We had moved a criminal appeal in the high court praying for setting aside the conviction order. Since it has been admitted by the court, we would now file a bail application soon," said Asaram's counsel Mahesh Bora.

With issuance of the notice to the state government seeking its reply on the appeal, the division bench of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur and Justice V K Mathur has also summoned the record of the case into the court for initiation of the arguments on the appeal.

The development has happened a week after Asaram got a reprieve in a case against him under IT Act. The court, last week, had granted him bail in this case, which was registered against him by the then SHO (Udaimandir) for threatening him on social media and making viral a caricature of the officer depicting him as

Ravana

.

Asaram and two co-accused of the case Sanchita Gupta alias Shilpi and Sharat Chandra had been convicted by the trial court on April 25 by the special court on SC/ST Cases, wherein Asaram had been sentenced for life while two others had been sentenced to 20 years each.

All of them had challenged their sentence in the high court, of which Shilpi has already been granted bail, while the hearing on the bail application of Sharat Chandra has been progressing.