The Akhilesh Yadav government has upgraded the security provided to the family of the 16-year-old victim who has alleged sexual harassment by Asaram Bapu.
Shahjahanpur SP Sayed Wasim Ahmed said that the security of the girl’s family has been intensified and a close watch is being kept on all visitors, including the relatives who are visiting the family. “We are also monitoring the activities of some people in the neighbourhood,” he said.
The local police has deployed six personnel at the girl’s residence after the family recently returned to their hometown to ‘stay away from Asaram’s goons’.
The victim’s and her family are residents of Shahjahanpur district and the girl’s father is a well established businessman.
The father had informed the police that he and his family were being threatened with dire consequences if he continued to pursue the case against Asaram Bapu.
“Asaram’s daughter Pooja Behn had come to Shahjahanpur to ‘suppress’ the case by saying ‘please forgive my father, everything will be as usual’. Some others with her issued veiled threats,” he had told the police.
The father told local reporters that, “I looked upon him as a spiritual Guru and even bought a plot of land for him and his ashram. My daughter and son were studying in Asaram’s ashram, in Chhindwara. After he misbehaved with my daughter, I have realised that he is not a god man but a pervert and I demand that he should be hanged.”
Responding to charges being levelled against him by Asaram’s supporters, the girl’s father said that if the spiritual Guru had any problem with him, he was ready to face a CBI inquiry into the same but would not withdraw the allegations he had levelled against Asaram.