Shahjahanpur rape case: SC's Justice R Banumathi recuses herself from hearing plea challenging bail granted to Swami Chinmayanand

New Delhi: Supreme Court judge, Justice R Banumathi, on Monday recused herself from hearing two petitions including one seeking transfer of the rape case filed against former union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayananda from Uttar Pradesh to a Delhi court. The second petition, filed by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves on behalf of the rape survivor, challenged the bail granted to Chinmayanand by the Allahabad High Court. [caption id=“attachment_7201881” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Last week, Gonsalves mentioned the matter before a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde for transfer of the case to Delhi for a fair trial and said that the accused is a powerful man and life of victim’s family is in danger. Bobde had said that the victim and her family can apply for police protection. In February, Allahabad High Court had transferred from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow the trial in the sexual abuse case against Chinmyanand. The Allahabad High Court had on February 3 granted bail to Chinmayanand, a former Union minister of state, in the alleged rape case filed by a woman who studied law in a college run by Chinmayanand in UP’s Shahjahanpur. In December 2019, the 23-year-old law student, who has accused Chinmayanand of rape, was released from a district jail in connection with an extortion case after she was granted bail by Allahabad High Court. The woman was arrested on September 25 in connection with an extortion case filed on the basis of Chinmayanand’s complaint alleging that she, along with three of her friends, had demanded Rs 5 crore from him. Chinmayanand had alleged that they threatened to make public some purported videos of him getting a massage from the law student. On the other hand, the woman had alleged that she was repeatedly raped and blackmailed by Chinmayanand for over a year.