KRIPAL SINGH.

▮ Identity sealed · POCSO §23

Prosecution witness, Jodhpur rape case

Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh

“Kripal Singh was a key prosecution witness in the Jodhpur rape case who was shot and killed in Shahjahanpur in July 2015. Before succumbing to his wounds, Singh recorded a dying declaration naming Asaram Bapu's followers who had threatened him to retract his testimony.”

Kripal Singh was an employee in the transport office run by the father of the minor victim in the 2013 Jodhpur rape case. A resident of Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Singh had worked closely with the family for years and was one of the few individuals who witnessed the family's distress immediately after the victim returned from the Manai ashram. Because of his close connection to the family and his knowledge of the initial events, Singh was listed as a vital prosecution witness in the Jodhpur trial.

As a government witness, Singh faced constant pressure from Asaram's local network in Uttar Pradesh. He reported that unidentified men frequently visited his home and office, offering him large sums of money to change his testimony and warning him that he would face the same fate as Amrut Prajapati if he refused. Despite these threats, Singh recorded his statement before the Jodhpur court, detailing the timeline of the victim's travel and the family's interactions with ashram staff.

On July 10, 2015, near a petrol pump in the Puwanwa area of Shahjahanpur, two motorcycle-borne gunmen pulled up next to Singh and shot him in the chest. He was rushed to a hospital in Bareilly in critical condition. Before he died from his injuries the following day, Singh recorded a formal dying declaration with the police. In this declaration, he explicitly stated that Asaram Bapu's followers had approached him in the Jodhpur court premises, offering him money to turn hostile, and that he believed they were responsible for the shooting.

Singh's death was the third murder of a witness in the Asaram cases, leading to intense media coverage and public criticism of the state's witness protection programs. His family was subsequently assigned armed police security, and his death was cited by the Supreme Court during hearings on Asaram's bail applications as proof of the extreme risk of releasing the godman. The contract killer Kartik Haldar was later charged and prosecuted for executing Singh's murder.