Asaram to be flown to Delhi for medical check up at AIIMS

Jodhpur: Self-styled godman Asaram will be on Sunday flown to Delhi under police custody for medical examination at AIIMS.

Asaram would be taken to New Delhi by an Air India flight tomorrow afternoon in pursuance of the directions of the Supreme Court, Police Commissioner, Jodhpur, Ashok Kumar Rathore said.

"We have formed a team of police officials to accompany him to Delhi and back to Jodhpur safely. Another team of the city police is already in Delhi to receive him," he said. Police attributed the delay in taking Asaram to Delhi to the festive season, during which heavy police force is deployed in the city to maintain law and order.

The Supreme Court had on August 29 allowed Asaram to be taken to AIIMS from Jodhpur jail for medical examination.

The order had come after a three-member panel of doctors from AIIMS informed the apex court that requisite equipment for evaluation of Asaram's medical condition were not there in Jodhpur jail and he needed to be brought to the institute for proper check up.

On August 11, the apex court had denied interim bail to Asaram in a rape case and directed AIIMS to set up a medical board to ascertain his health condition before taking up his regular bail plea.

Asaram was arrested by Jodhpur Police on August 31, 2013 and has been in jail since then. A teenage girl had accused him of sexual assault at his ashram in Manai village near Jodhpur.

The girl belonging to Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh was a student living in the ashram.