Narayan Sai sent to Surat Police`s custody in bribe case

Surat: A local court on Monday sent self-styled godman Asaram Bapu`s son Narayan Sai, facing rape charges, to police remand till January 1 in a bribery case.

Sai, accused of hatching a conspiracy after his arrest to give bribes to weaken the rape case filed against him, was produced before Additional Session Judge M R Mengeda. The prosecution sought 14-day police remand for Sai but the Judge granted only nine days custody. Public Prosecutor Nayan Sukhadwala sought remand of Sai to find out how sitting in a jail he planned and tried to execute the conspiracy of bribing police officers, doctors and judicial officers. Police also wanted to know which officers were contacted by Sai to weaken the rape case against him. During Sai`s earlier remand, Surat Crime Branch had unearthed a plan to bribe policemen, doctors and judicial officers to weaken the rape case against him. Police had arrested six persons, including Sub-Inspector C K Kumbhani, in the bribery case. Sai was brought to the city on December 4, a day after he was arrested by Delhi Police from Delhi-Haryana border along with his two aides. He was sent to police remand till today in the rape case by a Surat Court on December 5. Two sisters from Surat had lodged separate complaints against Sai and his father, accusing them of rape and illegal confinement, among other charges. Surat Police had booked Sai under various IPC sections for rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, rioting and criminal intimidation. In her complaint, the younger of the two had accused Sai of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at Asaram`s Surat ashram. The elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 1997 and 2006 when she was residing at his ashram near Ahmedabad. Asaram (72) is currently lodged in a Rajasthan jail after being arrested in September for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl at his Jodhpur ashram.