‘I know nothing about black magic’

In what could come as a relief to Asaram Bapu, a former sadhak of the ashram in his deposition before justice DK Trivedi commission has said that he had no idea if black magic was performed at the ashram or not. 

Deposing before the commission that was set up to probe the death of two children of the ashram,  Shekhar Kashmirilal Giridhar however said that many a times he had seen Asaram performing some rituals with peacock feather.

He said these rituals were performed on ill people who came to Asaram to get cured.  He also said that that those people who could not be cured by the peacock feather ritual were subject to another ritual which was code named as 303.

Shekhar, who had served at various ashram of Asaram Bapu for fifteen years from 1993 to March 2008, also told justice Trivedi that he had no information about the circumstances that led to the death of the ashram boys Dipesh and Abhishek. He said that he had left the ashram in March 2008 due to personal reasons.  On being questioned as to what made him leave the ashram, Shekhar said he left because his mother is a diabetic and his younger brother has a liver problem. He also said that after leaving the ashram he did not receive any threats from the sadhak.

He, however, said that some ashram sadhaks and Asaram supporters had protested outside his residence in New Delhi after he quit. Shekhar also said that on August 26, 2008, when he was at Haridwar, he had come to know through the media reports that Asaram had given contract to a tantrik to kill six people and he was one of them. However, he said that despite such reports he had not received any threats.

Shekhar also stated in his deposition that he had met Raju Chandak once after leaving the ashram in New Delhi.