Bapu Maharaj: From a hut to 400 ashrams, and now Qaidi no 130
Bapu Asaram: From a hut to 400 ashrams, and now Qaidi no 130 From hut on a river bank to 400 Ashrams to now Qaidi no 130, this bapu has seen some serious trouble in the last 10 years! From the high pedestal of a preacher having thousands of followers, to now- spending rest of his life inside the four walls of a jail after raping a minor girl in 2013, here’s the fall of the 10,000 crore empire, the saint and the man worshipped by thousands! With the amount of money he has to his name, Asaram can surely give top businessmen a run for their money. ‘Spend-his-life-in-jail’, self-styled godman created an empire of Rs 10,000 crore within 40 years. A man from the humble hut on the banks of the Sabarmati river in the early 70s to over 400 ashrams across the country and the world, this godman had certainly built an empire. As per the documents, the 77-year-old Asaram has amassed wealth of around 10,000 crore, which is excluding the market value of vast track of lands that he holds. A huge number of followers wish to get a glimpse of the baba even after the rape conviction, other crimes like land grabbing and practice of black magic in his ashrams. As per a short documentary available on his official website, Asaram was born in 1941 as Asumal Sirumalani in Berani village of Sindh province in Pakistan. After partition in 1947, Asumal came to Ahmedabad with his parents and studied only till the fourth standard. Asumal embarked on a "spiritual quest" towards Himalayas, where he met his Guru, Lilashah Bapu, the documentary claimed. It was that Guru who gave him the name 'Asaram' in 1964 and "commanded him to carve his own path and guide people". Within a span of four decades, he added around 400 ashrams in India and abroad. His real fall started in 2013, after he was arrested for a minor's rape in Rajasthan. This Qaidi no will now spend all his life in the four walls of a jail. -PTC News
