Asaram devotees own up 2 murders

AHMEDABAD: Two Asaram Bapu devotees have confessed that they were involved in two murders (out of three) and all the six assaults made on witnesses in rape cases lodged against their guru and his son across India.
Basav Raju (28) and his wife Sejal Prajapati (26) also confessed that they planned fresh attacks on three witnesses who had survived earlier assaults.
Basav and Sejal have also disclosed the names of the shooters involved. Ankit and Kartik are both sadhaks and used to stay in Asaram's ashrams in Ahmedabad and Surat.
Three witnesses were killed and at least six witnesses and Asaram baiters assaulted in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
Asaram was arrested for the alleged sexual assault on a 16-year-old girl in Jodhpur in September 2013, and in the rape case filed by two sisters against him and his son, Narayan Sai. Asaram and his son are currently both behind bars.
“The couple, Basav and Sejal, has confessed to involvement in assaults on witnesses across India and also in the murder of Amrut Prajapati and Akhil Gupta. The only murder in which they have not confessed their involvement is that of the witness Kripal Singh in UP. We are interrogating them about that murder,” deputy commissioner of police, Deepan Bhadran, said.
Police said the couple had spilled the beans about plans to carry out fresh attacks on the witnesses Rahul Sachan, Mahendra Chawla and Satish Waghwani who had earlier survived after being assaulted.
Crime branch officials said Basav and Sejal have not yet betrayed any sign that they were executing orders of higher ups. “They have been insisting they are ardent sadhaks of Asaram and were self-driven in targeting witnesses who they felt were maligning their guru,” said Bhadran. Such was their zeal that the couple also committed four thefts in Bengaluru to raise over Rs 3 lakh to fund the murder attempts on of three surviving witnesses.