Delhi HC stays trial court order restraining publication of book on Asaram Bapu's conviction

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside a trial court order restraining the publication of a book that claims to be the "true story" behind the conviction of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who is serving a life sentence in a rape case.

A single-judge bench of Justice Najmi Waziri set aside the trial court order and directed the publisher Harper Collins to put a disclaimer that the appeal against conviction is pending either on the front or back cover.

The High Court had last week reserved its order on the plea filed by publisher Harper Collins challenging the trial court order restraining publication of a book titled "Gunning for the Godman: The True Story Behind Asaram Bapu's Conviction".

A Patiala House court in Delhi had on September 4 directed the publisher to restrain from publishing the book titled "Gunning for the Godman: The True Story behind the Asaram Bapu Conviction" till the next date of hearing.

The trial court had issued the stay on a petition filed by Sanchita Gupta, a co-accused in a case related to Asaram, who had approached the court seeking urgent relief against the publication of the book claiming that the pre-released chapter published on a web portal was defamatory of her and was likely to prejudice her appeal pending before the High Court of Rajasthan.

Sanchita Gupta had approached the court in a civil suit filed by her advocates Naman Joshi and Karan Khanuja and the matter was strongly argued by Advocate Vijay Aggarwal.

The book authored by Ajay Lamba, Additional Commissioner of Police, Jaipur and Sanjiv Mathur claims to be a true story, however, it is at variance with the trial record and most importantly interfered with Sanchita's appeal which was sub-judice and where the Rajasthan High Court had already suspended her sentence, Sanchita's plea had said.

( With inputs from ANI )