Narayan Sai moves HC seeking quashing of arrest warrant

Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu's son Narayan Sai moved a petition before the Gujarat High Court seeking quashing of the arrest warrant issued by a Surat court last month in connection with the sexual assault case lodged against him by two Surat-based sisters.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow.

An FIR was filed against the absconding Sai and Asaram on October 6 by Surat police at Jehangirpura police station, based on complaints of the two sisters who accused the father and son duo of sexual assault.

The Surat court had issued the arrest warrant in Sai's name in connection with the FIR on October 28 under Section 70 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The younger of the two sisters had lodged a complaint against Sai accusing him of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she lived in Asaram's Surat ashram.

After the two complaints were lodged at Jehangirpura police station in Surat, the complaint against Asaram was transferred to the Chandkheda police station at Ahmedabad because the alleged incident had taken place there.

The elder of the two sisters had accused Asaram of repeated sexual assault between 1997 and 2006 during the time she had lived in his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city.

72-year-old Asaram was arrested in August on charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl at his Jodhpur ashram in Rajasthan and was lodged in jail there.

He was brought to city last month and interrogated extensively in connection with the sexual assault complaint here, before being taken back to Jodhpur.