Asaram Bapu's son practices black magic: PA tells commission

Former personal assistant of Narayan Sai, son of religious guru Asaram Bapu, today told a commission enquiring into the mysterious death of two boys that he had seen the former performing black magic.

Mahendra Chawla, from Panipat in Haryana, while deposing before the D K Trivedi Commission said that he was personal assistant of Sai for four years between 2001 and 2005 and had seen him perform black magic.

The commission was constituted last year to probe the mysterious death of Dipesh Vaghela (10) and Abhishek Vaghela (11), after their decomposed bodies were found from the banks of Sabarmati river near Asaram Bapu's Ashram, where the boys used to study.

He told during open proceedings that while he was in Kalyan Ashram in Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, he had seen Sai perform some ritual on bank of a river, where he was reciting 'mantras' over body of child covered with black cloth.

Chawala claimed that he had seen Sai perform black magic again at a temple in Jharkhand. The commission had called Chawala for deposition as the parents of the two boys had alleged that black magic was practiced in the Ashram.

They had contended that the death of the two boys had some connection with the practice of black magic in the ashram.