Former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand, who allegedly raped a law student, was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on February 3.
Chinmayanand was booked under Sections 376C (sexual intercourse by a person or persons taking advantage of their official position), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 D (stalking), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code after a law student had complained about a person from the “saint community” threatening her.
The woman, who later claimed she was sexually abused by Swami Chinmayanand, was a student of the SS Law College in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur, which was controlled by the former BJP leader.
The case hogged the limelight after the alleged victim was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police for withholding evidence from the Special Investigation Team probing the case.
In August 2019, the 23-year-old law student had briefly gone missing after sharing a video on social media detailing her ordeal, which had gone viral. Although she had not named Swami Chinmayanand in it, her father took his name while filing a “missing persons” report with the police.
When she was found later, she had claimed that she had damning evidence against the 72-year-old BJP leader. Chinmayanand was booked on charges of kidnapping and sexually abusing her later that month. It took almost another month before he was arrested from Shahjahanpur on September 20, 2019.
Eventually, a charge sheet was submitted by the SIT on November 6 against the former BJP leader and also the alleged victim, who, Swami Chinmayanand had accused of extortion. The student was granted bail in December last year.