Narayan Sai, born Narayan Harpalani, is the son of the Hindu guru Asaram Bapu and, like his father, is now serving a court-ordered life sentence for rape. In 2013 a woman who had lived at his father's ashram told police in Surat, Gujarat, that Narayan Sai had raped her repeatedly between 2002 and 2005, when she was in her twenties, and had assaulted and intimidated her to keep her silent. He was arrested on 4 December 2013 near the Delhi-Haryana border and held at Lajpor Jail in Surat, with an interim release in 2015 to visit his ailing mother.
A Surat sessions court convicted him on 26 April 2019 of rape, unnatural offenses, assault and criminal intimidation, and sentenced him on 30 April 2019 to life imprisonment with a fine of five lakh rupees. He has appealed the conviction to the Gujarat High Court, arguing through counsel that the complainant's account contains contradictions across her statements, that she offered no explanation for not reporting the assaults sooner, and that the trial court never independently tested whether the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. The Gujarat High Court has not yet ruled on the merits of that appeal.
In 2026 Narayan Sai asked the Supreme Court of India to suspend his sentence while the appeal remained pending. On 7 August 2026 a bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale declined, finding no basis to interfere with the High Court's own refusal to suspend the sentence, but directed the Gujarat High Court to decide his appeal within three months. As of that order, Narayan Sai remains in custody, his conviction and life sentence for rape stand, and his appeal remains open.