GOPI MANIAR.

▮ Identity sealed · POCSO §23

Journalist, Ahmedabad-based media

Ahmedabad, Gujarat

“Gopi Maniar Ghanghar is a senior broadcast journalist with *India Today* who was physically assaulted by Asaram's followers in 2008 while covering the suspicious deaths of two gurukul students. Maniar's assault was one of the earliest documented physical attacks on the press by the cult.”

Gopi Maniar Ghanghar is a veteran television journalist based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, working as a senior correspondent for *India Today* and *Aaj Tak*. In July 2008, when the bodies of two young cousins, Deepesh and Abhishek Vaghela, were found mutilated on the Sabarmati riverbed near Asaram's Motera ashram, Maniar was one of the primary reporters covering the resulting public protests and demands for an investigation.

While reporting live from outside the Motera ashram gates, Maniar and her camera crew were attacked by a large mob of Asaram's followers. The devotees assaulted the crew, smashed their television equipment, and threatened to kill them if they continued reporting on the child deaths. Maniar sustained minor injuries and filed a police complaint against the attackers. The incident was one of the earliest documented physical attacks on the press by the cult, showing their willingness to use violence to control media narratives.

Despite the assault and ongoing intimidation, Maniar continued her coverage of the Trivedi Commission of Inquiry, the police investigations, and the subsequent rape cases filed against Asaram and Narayan Sai. She provided extensive coverage of the trials, the arrests of the hit squad members, and the final convictions in Jodhpur and Gandhinagar. Her reporting was featured in the 2025 discovery+ documentary 'Cult of Fear', in which she described the climate of fear that existed in Gujarat during the height of the cult's influence.

Maniar remains an active correspondent in Gujarat, covering politics, crime, and social movements. Her experience during the 2008 gurukul deaths coverage highlighted the early warning signs of the cult's violent response to external scrutiny. Her work is recognized as an important contribution to the journalistic documentation of the Asaram Bapu case.