New Delhi: After being on the run for nearly two months, self-styled godman Asaram’s son Narayan Sai was arrested in the wee hours today from the Delhi-Haryana border by Crime Branch of Delhi Police in connection with a sexual assault case in Surat.
“Narayan Sai has been arrested from the Delhi-Haryana border. One of his aides, Hanuman too has been arrested with him,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav told PTI.
Kaushal alias Hanuman is a close aide of Sai and was also named in the FIR in the sexual assault case.
Delhi Police sources said Sai had disguised himself as a Sikh man to evade arrest. A reward of Rs 5 lakh had been announced for information leading to his arrest.
“He was wearing a red colour turban and sporting a beard. He was wearing a T shirt, pant and sports jacket in order to conceal his real identity,” a source said.
The Surat police had registered two complaints by two sisters- one against Asaram and the other against Sai – of rape, sexual assault, illegal confinement and other charges.
The younger of the two sisters had filed the complaint against Sai, accusing him 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 assault between 1997 and 2006 during the time she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
Asaram is in judicial custody in Jodhpur jail since his arrest in September for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor.
The Crime Branch had been looking for Sai for close to two months. It had got a tip off about him being present in Pipli village near Kurukshetra. By the time the team reached there, he had left for Delhi in a sports utility vehicle (SUV).
The police team followed the SUV and was finally able to intercept the car at around 1:30 AM at a refueling station along Delhi-Haryana border.
Narayan and Hanuman were arrested after the police were able to establish their identity, the police said. Two others present in the vehicle were driver Ramesh and a juvenile.
Sai is expected be produced before a local court here in the afternoon. He may be handed over to the Gujarat police for further investigations.
In Ahmedabad, state DGP Pramod Kumar said that Sai had been absconding for more than 50 days.
He had been giving a slip to the police of several states for the last couple of months after the complaint of rape was filed by the two sisters against him and his father at the Jehangirpura police station in Surat in Gujarat.
A Gujarat police team had landed in Delhi in mid-October and had carried out several raids at Asaram’s ashrams at Rohini, Najafgarh, Jafarpur Kalan and on Ridge Road but failed to trace Sai.
Later, Dharmendra Pariyar alias Dharmesh (28), in-charge of the Ridge Road ashram, was arrested for allegedly helping Sai to flee the national capital.
