IN PICS: Unholy rap sheets of some of India's self-styled godmen

Asaram, the latest in the list, is accused in another rape case in Gujarat along with son Narayan Sai, who is also in jail. Three of the witnesses in the case, being tried in a Gandhinagar court, have wound up dead. (AFP image)

Last week, the DCW had rescued more than 45 minor girls from two different ashrams run by Virendra Dev Dixit .

The sentence was passed by Jagdeep Singh, a special CBI judge, in a makeshift court in the Sunaria jail where Ram Rahim, 50, had been lodged since his conviction on Friday.

The year before, Santosh Madhavan aka Swami Amrita Chaitanya from Kerala was found guilty of sexually exploiting two minor girls in 2009. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. A wanted man by Interpol for duping an NRI woman, his other transgressions include making pornographic videos and financial fraud.

New Delhi: Influential self-styled godman Asaram was today sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a teenaged minor girl, putting the issue of sexual offences and other crimes by spiritual leaders under the scanner once again.

In the 1990s, there was also the case of Prem Kumar aka Swami Premananda who moved from Sri Lanka to establish an ashram near Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, and later opened branches in foreign countries. His ashram had women and orphans, many of who had accompanied him from Sri Lanka. In 1997, the godman was sentenced to life imprisonment for 13 counts of rape, molestation of two girls and a murder. He continued to maintain his innocent till he died in in Cuddalore jail in 2011. (sripremananda.org)

In 2010, Swami Nithyananda from Karnataka hit the headlines when a sex tape of him with an actress was shown on a TV channel. Nithyananda, who faces allegations of rape and land grabbing, has served two stints in jail, including 53 days in 2010. (Image: PTI)