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PUBLISHED: 22:26 GMT, 7 January 2013 | UPDATED:
22:41 GMT, 7 January 2013
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.
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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.
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.
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