How was godman Asaram apprehended by IPS officer Ajay Lamba?

A Gandhinagar sessions court condemned godman Asaram to life in jail on January 31, 2023 for raping a woman from Surat at his ashram in Gujarat that year. While Asaram was incarcerated, the girl had complained about him in October 2013. In her complaint, the girl named seven other people, including Asaram’s son Narayan Sai, his wife, and daughter.

Due to a lack of evidence against them, the court did, however, acquit six other people, including his wife, son, and daughter.

Although Asaram is accused of raping a girl from Shahjahanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh, he is already serving a life term in that case. The task of apprehending him back then was difficult. Several of his offences also surfaced after his arrest.

Asaram was taken into custody by IPS officer Ajay Lamba and his group. But it was difficult to capture Asaram, who had a sizable following all over the nation.

Ajay Lamba: Who is he? Ajay Lamba, an engineer-turned-IPS officer, is presently assigned to the anti-corruption bureau. To capture Asaram in 2013, the 40-year-old led a group of 11 people.

• His investigations on Asaram also revealed a number of rackets that Asaram and his family were operating across Delhi, UP, MP, and Rajasthan under the guise of religion.
• Ajay Lamba revealed in his book Gunning for the Godman that he and his family got approximately 1,625 letters threatening their lives if they opted to press the case against Asaram.
• At one point, the threats prevented his wife from even leaving her home, and their daughter was unable to attend school.

How he nabbed Asaram: On August 21, 2013, Ajay Lamba, an IPS officer and the deputy chief of police for Jodhpur West, welcomed a team from the Delhi Police to his office. In order to file a case against Asaram for sexually abusing the girl, the Delhi team had brought a girl along.

• The girl was from Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and she claimed that Asaram had sexually assaulted her on the evening of August 15, 2013, at his ashram in the Manai village close to Jodhpur.
• At first, Lamba did not accept the accusations because Asaram had a sizable following and was a well regarded figure. However, when the girl showed him a detailed map of Asaram’s ashram in Manai village, 38 kilometres from Jodhpur, he wondered how someone could give a plan of the room that served as the crime scene without going there. That served as the catalyst for the subsequent probe, according to Lamba.

• Once Lamba was persuaded that the girl from UP’s claims had some validity, he began the inquiry.
• Asaram was at his Ashram in Indore (MP) when Ajay Lamba and his team narrowed in on him, thus the entire team proceeded there to arrest him and bring him to Jodhpur where the FIR was filed against him.
• When the police arrived to the ashram, Asaram began throwing fits to avoid being arrested. It took the Jodphur police nine hours to finally be able to transport him to Rajasthan.
• When he brought Asaram to Jodhpur, he didn’t receive the same warm greeting as he had in Indore. He was interrogated for several hours before the police ultimately filed a charge sheet.
• In the case, the godman was ultimately given a life sentence in 2018.
• The 77-year-old has been imprisoned since 2013, and the Surat girl’s rape case is still pending the court’s determination on the appropriate level of punishment.