Police today arrested a husband-wife duo who were allegedly involved in orchestrating attacks on Asaram's former aides and several witnesses in rape cases against the self-styled godman, who is now behind bars.
The duo, identified as Basavraj Avanna Talloi, a native of Bijapur in Karnataka and his wife Sejal Prajapati, were held from their residence in Banglore in Karnataka yesterday and brought here this morning by city crime branch.
According to police, both the accused are staunch followers (Sadhak) of Asaram and organised attacks on at least six persons in Gujarat within last two years to silence the voices against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, who is also in jail in connection with a sexual assault case registered against him in Surat.
"We arrested two key conspirators - Basavraj and Sejal - from Banglore yesterday. They along with 15 other staunch followers of Asaram have planned and carried out attacks on several witnesses and other anti-Asaram followers in recent past in Gujarat," said city police commissioner Shivanand Jha.
Police said the duo have made a 'hit list' of those whom they wanted to 'eliminate' because they were having an anti-Asaram stand.
"Our primary investigation revealed that sharp shooters were hired by these conspirators. Apart from six cases of Gujarat, we are also trying to find out their role in cases outside the state," said Deputy Commissioner of Police(DCP) -Crime Deepan Bhadran.
Other 15 sadhaks of Asaram who helped the duo to execute the attacks were identified by police as Punit, Pravin Vakil, Shailendra, Arjun Vakil, Kishor Bodke, Atul Narkhede, Gopal Patidar, Chandrashekhar Talloi, Sunil Vankhede, Manoj, Ankit, Laxman Purohit, Rakesh Patel, Sukesh and Tamraj.
All of them are close to Asaram and used to live in different ashrams across India and are yet to be arrested, stated a press release by crime branch.
As part of a conspiracy to 'teach lesson' to witnesses in Asaram's case and help 'Guruji' to come out of jail, all of them formed a group and decided to win sympathy of witnesses by projecting Basavraj and Sejal as victims of Asaram's atrocities.
