Jamna, a close disciple of self-styled godman Asaram’s son Narayan Sai, surrendered before the police in connection with a rape case registered against her guru by one of two city-based sisters. The other sister (elder) has accused Asaram of sexually assaulting her.
Jamna, who is said to be mother of Sai’s son, had evaded questioning by the police after his arrest on December 4 last year in connection with the rape case.
“Narayan Sai’s female disciple Jamna, with whom Sai had fathered a child, surrendered today before Surat police. We will arrest her and produce her before court tomorrow,” DCP (Crime) Shobha Bhutada said.
The police said Jamna had been named in the original FIR and her interrogation would strengthen the case against Sai.
Jamna had informed the police that she was in an ashram in Madhya Pradesh.
Sai was held from the Haryana-Delhi border after evading arrest for nearly two months in the sexual assault case lodged against him by an inmate of his Surat-based ashram.
The sisters had lodged complaints against Sai and Asaram for rape, sexual assault, illegal confinement and other charges.
The Surat police had booked 40-year-old Sai under various sections including rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, rioting armed with deadly weapon, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code.
In her complaint, the younger of the two sisters had accused Sai of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at the Surat ashram.
The elder sister, in her complaint against Asaram, had accused him of repeated sexual assaults between 1997 and 2006 during the time she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The complaint against Asaram, which was initially lodged at Surat’s Jehangirpura police station, was transferred to city’s Chandkheda police station as the alleged incident took place here.
Asaram, 72, is currently lodged in a Jodhpur jail after being arrested in September last year on charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl at his Jodhpur ashram.
A chargesheet was filed against Asaram in a court in Gandhinagar last week accusing him of unnatural sex, rape and illegal confinement.