Shahjahanpur rape case: Allahabad HC grants bail to law student, asks SIT if her allegations against BJP leader Chinmayanand were probed

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday granted bail to the law student charged with trying to extort money from Swami Chinmayanand, the BJP leader whom she has accused of rape. Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the woman studied, was arrested under section 376-C of the IPC and continues to be in judicial custody. But, in a related case, the 23-year-old woman and her three friends were also booked on Chinmayanand’s complaint that they had demanded Rs 5 crore from him. [caption id=“attachment_7244481” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Swami Chinmayanand. News18[/caption] The former Union minister alleged that they had threatened to make public video clips that showed him getting massages from the student. Allowing the student’s bail application, Justice SD Singh observed that the police had already completed the investigation and filed a charge sheet. He said no reasonable apprehension had been cited by the state that her release on bail will delay the trial. Hence, there is no need to detain her further, the court added. During the bail hearing, the woman’s counsel argued that she is a victim of sexual harassment and claimed that all allegations against her are fabricated. The counsel alleged that the student was raped by Chinmayanand over a long period of time. Chinmayanand’s lawyer opposed the bail application and said the student had used a spy camera for recording the video clips.

Allahabad HC asks SIT for status report on law student’s complaint

Hearing the related case, the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday also asked the special investigation team if it probed the woman law student’s complaint against Chinmayanad, registered at the Lodhi Road police station in New Delhi. A bench of justices Manoj Mishra and VK Srivastava asked SIT to file an affidavit within a week, detailing the status of the probe into the Shahjahanpur woman’s complaint against the BJP leader and fixed 11 December as the next date of hearing in the case. The bench also asked the SIT to bring on record the manner in which the investigation, if any, was carried out by the SIT on allegations made by the law student. The law student on 5 September had alleged in her application to the Lodhi Road Police Station that Chinmayanand had shot her obscene video in his mobile phone which he used to blackmail her. The SIT, probing into the woman law student’s allegation of sexual harassment to her by former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, has been submitting a summary progress report on a regular basis before the court on the court’s direction. The BJP leader was arrested on 20 September by a special investigation team (SIT), formed by Uttar Pradesh Police following directions from the Supreme Court. He was booked under section 376-C, a charge short of rape. It is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position and “induces or seduces” a woman to have sex with him.