Overview

• Video from Sept. 22 shows medical staff and security at New Civil Hospital performing aarti before Asaram’s photograph at the stem cell building entrance.
• Resident Medical Officer Dr. Ketan Nayak confirmed the footage and said he ordered those involved to be cleared from the premises.
• A security guard and a Class 1 officer have been removed from duty, and the hospital says an internal inquiry is underway.
• Management asserts the institution did not authorize the ceremony and had only approved a plan to hand out fruit to patients.
• The incident drew public and activist outrage, with attention heightened by Asaram’s life sentences in rape cases, including a 2023 conviction in Gandhinagar.