Asaram Bapu, born Ashumal Sirumalani, built the Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu Ashram Trust from a single hut on the banks of the Sabarmati River near Ahmedabad in 1973 into a network that, by its own account, had grown by 2013 to around 400 ashrams and forty residential schools across eighteen countries, teaching a devotional blend of Vedanta and yoga to tens of millions of followers.
In August 2013, a 16 year old devotee alleged that Asaram had sexually assaulted her at his ashram in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, where her family, followers for over a decade, had brought her. Served notice to appear before police, Asaram denied the allegation and described it as a political conspiracy against him, telling reporters he was ready to go to prison rather than yield to what he called harassment. He was arrested days later.
The Special POCSO Court at Jodhpur convicted him in April 2018 of criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement and rape, sentencing him to life imprisonment; two associates received 20 years each. The verdict was read inside the prison itself, under heavy security, for fear of violence from his followers.
Asaram appealed. In May 2026, a Rajasthan High Court bench upheld his core rape conviction and life sentence, ruling that his age and ailments could not justify, in the court's words, ignoring a victim's voice it called "quiet, devastating and irrefutable," while acquitting him of the gang-rape and conspiracy counts and fully acquitting his two co-accused. He carried the case to the Supreme Court of India, which by late June 2026 had declined to suspend his sentence, agreeing only to consider bail on a showing of grave and immediate danger to his health; his counsel argued he was the victim of a "social media trial." The life sentence for rape stands.