Court dismisses bail pleas of both Chinmayanand, law student who accused him of rape

Authorities are running parallel investigations into BJP leader Chinmayanand, accused of rape, and his accuser, a UP law student suspected of blackmailing the politician.

Law student (face covered), who alleged BJP leader Chinmayanand of sexual misconduct and harassment in Shahjahanpur on 25 September | PTI Photo

Shahjahanpur: A district court here on Monday dismissed the bail pleas of BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand and the law student who has accused him of rape.

The two were sent to 14-day-judicial custody after being arrested in cases now running parallel.

The former Union minister was 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 has been charged with extortion, following a complaint by Chinmayanand’s lawyer that she and three others were demanding money 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 told PTI.

Chinmayanand’s advocate Om Singh said, “Following the rejection of the bail plea, an appeal will be filed in the Allahabad High Court.”