Trivedi commission summons Asaram Bapu, Narayan Sai

Religious leader Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai have been summoned by the DK Trivedi Commission which is probing the mysterious death of Dipesh and Abhishek in Asaram ashram in 2008. The commission has fixed March 19 for Sai and March 20 for Asaram Bapu.

Confirming the development, Chandrashekhar Gupta, counsel for Bapu, said: “The commission had earlier fixed these dates. A couple of days back, the commission conveyed the message to us that the both shall have to appear on the scheduled dates and time.”

Gupta said, “We protested the appearance as we reiterated our early stand that Bapu and his son should be summoned when the commission concludes testimonies of all witnesses. There are seven witnesses yet to be examined and therefore we protested their appearance.”

The commission was constituted in 2008 to probe the mysterious death of Dipesh Vaghela (10) and Abhishek Vaghela (11). Their decomposed bodies were found from the banks of Sabarmati River near Asaram Bapu’s ashram at Motera.

Asaram and his son are facing allegations that they performed black magic in the ashram. The commission had issued them summons last year. However, they did not turn up by saying that they would appear before the commission only after the procedure of cross-examination of all witnesses was over.