Chinmayanand, law student denied bail
SHAHJAHANPUR/LUCKNOW: A district court in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur on Monday dismissed bail pleas of former Union minister Chinmayanand and the 23-year-old law student, who has accused the politician of rape.
The student was arrested on last Wednesday and sent to 14-day judicial custody in an extortion case that Chinmayanand has filed against her. Her family and activists have questioned the police action and alleged the arrest was meant to weaken the case against the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran.
Chinmayanand, 72, was sent to 14-day-judicial custody on September 13 but was taken to prison only on Monday after being discharged from a hospital.
His case is now running parallel in a district court along with that of the student .“District judge Rambabu Sharma heard the bail application of Swami Chinmayanand, and also the bail plea of the girl in the extortion case. The court dismissed both the bail applications,” said government lawyer Anuj Kumar Singh.
Chinmayanand’s lawyer, Om Singh, said that they will move the Allahabad high court against the rejection of his client’s bail plea. Earlier in the day, authorities in Shahjahanpur denied the Congress permission for a 180km-long march to Lucknow against the student’s arrest. Congress leaders, including former Union minister Jitin Prasada, Sushmita Dev and Aradhana Mishra who were in the town for the march, were detained while dozens of party workers were also arrested in Shahjahanpur.
In a series of tweets, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at Uttar Pradesh’s BJP government for the clampdown and accused it of suppressing the voices seeking justice for Shahjahanpur’s daughter. “The foot march is being stopped. Our workers and leaders are being arrested.” She asked what was the government afraid of. “Criminals in Uttar Pradesh have the protection of the government so they can intimidate the rape survivor,” she said.
Prasada said their leaders have been rounded up and he has been placed under house arrest. “Why does the BJP government think this yatra [march] will become a law and order issue? This move is unacceptable. The government is trying to silence the people’s voice,” he said. He also tweeted that he is in preventive custody “for simply wanting to highlight the plight of the Shahjahanpur rape victim”. Shahjahanpur magistrate Vineeta Singh said they denied the permission because the place mentioned for the launch of the march was “too small to hold 2,000 people”. Authorities cited a high court order in a letter to Congress’s Shahjahanpur president Kaushal Mishra while denying permission. The Supreme Court took cognisance of the alleged rape last month and directed the Uttar Pradesh government to form a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter under the high court’s supervision.
The woman has alleged Chinmayanand raped and physically exploited her for over a year. Chinmayanand’s lawyer, Om Singh, filed a counter case of extortion against her, alleging the student and her three friends made an extortion demand of ~5 crore. Chinmayanand, who runs a college in Shahjahanpur where the woman studied, was booked under Indian Penal Code’s sections 376C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority), 354D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation).