Gujarat police raid Bihar ashram, no trace of Narayan Sai

Narayan Sai, son of arrested self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, remained untraceable on Friday even as the Gujarat police raided an ashram in Bihar's Darbhanga district to arrest him on rape charges while his aide was nabbed in Delhi for allegedly helping him.

A three-member team of Gujarat police assisted by their Bihar counterparts raided the ashram in Ariyari village in search of Sai, but were unable to find him, police said.

Asaram, 72, presently in jail in Jodhpur for allegedly raping a teenager, has been slapped with a fresh police case long with Sai on October six following a complaint of sexual assault against them by two sisters in Surat.

The first information report, lodged by the sisters, alleged that they were raped between 2002 and 2004 in different ashrams of Asaram. The elder among the two alleged that she was raped by Asaram at his Ahmedabad ashram while the younger one charged his son with sexually assaulting her at the Surat ashram.

The Gujarat police had gone to an ashram in Jaynagar in neighbouring Madhubani district on Thursday where Sai had been on a visit.

In Delhi, Sai's aide Dharmesh, who was in-charge of Asaram's ashram on Ridge Road in central Delhi, was arrested this morning from his hideout in a joint operation by crime branches of the Delhi and the Gujarat police.

Dharmesh will be taken to Gujarat for questioning after being produced before a Delhi court, police said. A team of Gujarat police has been camping in Delhi for the last few days in search of Sai in connection with the rape case.

On Wednesday, a joint team of Delhi and Gujarat police had conducted raids at Asaram's ashrams at Rohini, Najafgarh, Jafarpur Kalan and on Ridge Road.

According to police sources, the team from Surat landed in the national capital after tracing Sai's location to the city while intercepting his mobile phone locations. He has been frequently changing his location, they said.

Sources said Sai has been switching his SIM cards and mobile phones. He has so far changed around 17 SIM cards and mobile phones, the sources said.