COURT REJECTS BAIL PLEAS OF EX-UNION MINISTER, ACCUSER

LUCKNOW: The Shahjahanpur district court rejected on Monday the bail plea of both Swami Chinamayanand and the woman who accused him of rape. The woman, a 23-year-old law student is in jail in a case of extortion attempt. Chinmayanand’s lawyer Om Singh said, “Our bail plea was rejected. We will go to the high court for bail now.” The woman’s advocate Anup Trivedi said, “I have not read the order. It is a detailed one. But bail has been rejected. Further steps will be initiated once I go through the order.”

The court had heard the argument at length and reserved the order for Monday evening. She had reached the district court after the Allahabad High Court directed her to approach an appropriate court for protection against arrest.

Chinmayanand, who was arrested on September 20, too had applied for bail that was taken up on Monday. Chinmayanand’s arrest coincided with the arrest of three more people - Sanjay Singh, Sachin Sengar and Vikram Singh - for allegedly attempting to extort money from him. The complainant woman was a co-accused in the extortion case and was arrested on September 24.

The SIT has booked Chinmayanand under Section 376C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority), 354 D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The girl was booked for attempt to extort money from Chinmayanand.The law student, who went missing on August 24 after uploading a video on social media alleging a “senior leader of the seer community” was harassing and threatening to kill her, did not name Chinmayanand then.

Her father later named the BJP leader. She was found a week later in Rajasthan and produced before the Supreme Court, which ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a special investigation team (SIT).

The woman was a student of SS Law College run by the former BJP leader.

The woman has handed over a pen drive to the SIT claiming that it contained around 43 video evidence.