Why Bapu Asaram is Still Behind Bars?
Bapu by Newswala
The
bureaucracy, the legislature and Judiciary of any country when determines to
harass any citizen of that country, they always succeed by making a mountain of
a molehill. The story of religious head Bapuji is almost similar. It was pre
decided to harass him and then a case was fabricated. Bapu like an innocent
child walked into a trap. Wilbur Smith in his adventure stories of South Africa
has described a similar trap used by Zulu tribes.
Enough
has been written about the case. The details of the incident, efforts made by the
police to prove the charges and appearance of national level advocate to defend
Bapu, many petitions by a defense lawyer, violent demonstration of followers
and disciples have remained the headlines of the newspapers for long. But
nothing seems to be working. Every time Bapu was brought to court, huge mass
gathered around Jail and Court, and Newspapers flashed pictures of Bapu,
sometime gloomy and pleading mercy, sometime jovial and fully confident that
nothing bad could happen to him.
Bapu
is accused of sexually molesting a minor girl. That girl was a student of one
of the many charity institutions run by Bapu and his follower. The girl was
brought to the private chamber of Bapu for cure by tantric rituals. Her parents
who were staunch follower of Bapu were sitting outside. They had given implied
consent for treatment. Read more about such tantric rituals in Maya.
All
religious institutions all over the world are accused of corruption from time
to time. Often we hear the same thing about churches. The priest and clergy are
accused of the same crimes as levied against various Gurus and Mahant (Head of
a sect). If the Government or King runs a campaign to clear the corruption of
all religious institutions by enacting laws and constituting commissions for all
religious bodies, it could be appreciated by the common man. But when some
isolated people are targeted and made to
suffer, the society does not approve of it. The ruling party or Kings have
always supported a particular religion or sect to gain political strength.
Politics is like a prostitute, it has no character. The political ideology
becomes secondary when the leader of ruling party wants to weaken the radical
forces within his own party. The cost is the life of a scapegoat and that
scapegoat is Bapuji.
Andrew
Greeley was an American Roman Catholic priest. He wrote many novels exposing
the corruption in churches. He said his books are ”less
erotic than the Song of Songs in the scriptures."[He
insisted that from what they heard in confession from women, priests probably
knew more about marriage than most married men; and he drew on this knowledge
to write a marital advice book he called Sexual Intimacy (1988). The
Priestly Sins (2004), a novel about a young priest who is exiled to an insane
asylum and then to an academic life because he reports abuse that he
has witnessed. Bollywood movie SINS was inspired by a true incident. The Catholic Priest of a small village in Kerala exploits a young student of Nursing College to quench his lust. The movie was banned to appease the Christian community and due to explicit scenes.
Louise
Kretzschmar in her paper presented in
Church Ethics Commission has raised the issue that “Do religious leaders teach
the people in power- be it political, business or religious, to resist the
temptation of greed, corruption and
selfish behavior.
All
religious heads are human being though they are expected to behave as
superhuman. There is nothing wrong with it. How a religious head would be
different from a common man, if he too falls to temptation.
The protection of children from
sexual offenses (POCSO) Act 2012 is elaborate act and covers all
aspects. The said Act defines a child as any person below eighteen years of
age, and defines different forms of sexual abuse, including penetrative
and non-penetrative assault, as well as sexual harassment and pornography, and
deems a sexual assault to be “aggravated” under certain circumstances, such as
when the abused child is mentally ill or when the abuse is committed by a
person in a position of trust or authority vi's-à-is the
child, like a family member, police officer, teacher, or doctor. Read about legitimate
violation of the act in "The
Old Man".
The
birth certificate is issued by local bodies like Municipal Corporation in urban
areas and Gram Panchayat in rural areas. Since two out of five births takes
place at home the medical certificate is not mandatory to obtain a birth
certificate. Some modern scientific techniques must be adopted to ascertain the
age of victim. The birth certificate is not authentic proof of age in this country.
According
to a report Devdasi
System is still prevalent in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana provinces of
India. It may be prevalent in other state also. It is socially accepted
exploitation system of minor girls by priests in the name of religion. Are we
able to stop that? Does the law of the land applies on them? Or they have some
different set of rules.
The
Bapu did not rape the girl. Medical Examination has proved that. If properly
argued the bail is imminent in this case.
© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India
