The father of one of the two boys found dead near Asaram Ashram in Ahmedabad in 2008 on Wednesday claimed the real culprits were still at large and Asaram Bapu was enjoying "political patronage".
Cousins Dipesh Vaghela (10) and Abhishek Vaghela (11) went missing from the residential school -- Gurukul -- run by the controversial godman on July 3, 2008. Two days later, their mutilated bodies were found in the riverbed nearby.
"Five years have passed, but the real culprits were never brought to book," Dipesh's father Prafful Vaghela said in Ahmedabad.
"Law is in his (Asaram's) pockets," he claimed. After the bodies were found, there was a widespread agitation against the ashram, with allegations that the deaths were linked to 'black magic' practised there.
Asaram is now again in the thick of controversy after a minor girl recently accused him of rape.
"The Rajasthan Chief Minister at least came out and told media that the police is taking action against Asaram. But, when our children died, the Gujarat Chief Minister didn't utter a single word," Vaghela alleged. "Asaram enjoys political patronage," he said.
"I appeal, not to all saints, but to the people of India, that saints such as Asaram are defaming other saints," he said.
State CID in 2009 booked seven followers of Asaram in the case under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in relation with the boys' death. The state government also appointed Justice D K Trivedi Commission to probe the incident, which submitted its report only last month.
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