Asaram found guilty of raping teenager in 2013, awarded life term

A Jodhpur court on Wednesday awarded life sentence to self-styled godman Asaram after holding him guilty of raping a teenage girl in his ashram five years ago, the second case of a powerful spiritual leader being convicted of a sexual offence in less than a year after Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim last August. Special judge Madhusudan Sharmas verdict, which comes as the debate over sexual violence, particularly the rape of minors, intensifies across the country, was read out in the Jodhpur Central Jail where 77-year-old Asaram has been kept for over four years.