After arrest in rape case, Chinmayanand to be stripped of sainthood, says Akhara Parishad; ex-BJP leader to be ousted from community unless acquitted

Haridwar: The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the organisation of Hindu saints and ascetics, has called a meeting of all the Akharas in Haridwar on 10 October to expel BJP leader and former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand from the community. According to sources, he will remain ousted from the saint community unless acquitted. [caption id=“attachment_7244481” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Swami Chinmayanand. News18[/caption] It is pertinent to mention that a month after a law student levelled charges of rape against Chinmayanand, he was arrested on Friday by the Uttar Pradesh Police. However, he was charged with an offence not amounting to rape, stalking and criminal intimidation. He was remanded to 14-days judicial custody by a local Court at Shahjahanpur. As per police, Chinmayanand has accepted “all evidence” that have come up against him. The matter came to the fore when the girl went missing on 24 August after putting up a Facebook post alleging that a person from ‘sant samaj’ threatened to kill her and her kin. She did not name Chinmayanand then. She was tracked down in Rajasthan six days later and produced before the Supreme Court the same day after a direction from the apex court. The apex court then directed setting up an SIT to probe the matter.