The bail plea of former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, against whom a law student had levelled rape charges, has been rejected. Chinmayanand who was admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences has been discharged. The bail plea of his accuser who is arrested on charges of extortion has also been rejected.
Shahjahanpur: A district court on Monday rejected the bail pleas of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Swami Chinmayanand and the law student who has accused him of rape.
Also on Monday, the Lucknow Hospital where the former Union minister spent the past week discharged the politician, sending him back to Shahjahanpur jail.
Chinmayanand and the law student were sent to 14-day-judicial custody after being arrested in cases now running parallel.
Hours before the Shahjahanpur court rejected the two bail pleas, Congress workers held a public meeting in the town, ahead of a planned march to state capital Lucknow in support of the student.
The police, however, promulgated prohibitory orders, arresting about 80 Congress workers and thwarting the “nyay yatra” – their planned 180-km “march for justice”. They were later released on personal bond, police said.
Chinmayanand has been booked under section 376C, a charge short of rape, on the basis of the complaint filed by the 23-year-old woman who studies at a college run by his ashram. The woman herself was charged with extortion, following a complaint by the politician's lawyer that she and three others had demanded Rs 5 crore from the leader.
"District judge Rambabu Sharma heard the bail application of Swami Chinmayanand, and also the bail plea of the girl in an extortion case. The court dismissed both the bail applications," government counsel Anuj Kumar Singh said.
Chinmayanand's advocate Om Singh said, "Following the rejection of the bail plea, an appeal will be filed in the Allahabad High Court."
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