The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday sought the state government's response on a petition filed by self-styled godman Asaram Bapu for the extension of his temporary bail.
Sentenced to life imprisonment in a 2013 rape case, Asaram (86), is on bail on medical grounds.
A division bench of Justices Ilesh Vora and Sandeep Bhatt issued a notice to the government, asking for its reply by June 27.
The high court had on March 28 granted temporary bail for three months to Asaram as the interim bail granted to him earlier by the Supreme Court was to expire on March 31.
A division bench of the high court then delivered a split verdict, after which a third judge, to whom the matter was referred, ruled in favour of granting him three-month temporary bail.
In January 2023, a court in Gandhinagar convicted Asaram in the rape case.
He is also serving life sentence in another case where he was convicted of raping a girl at his ashram in Rajasthan in 2013.
In the present case, he was convicted for raping a woman disciple, who hailed from Surat, on several occasions from 2001 to 2006 when she was living at his ashram at Motera near Ahmedabad.
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