The Allahabad high court has listed for hearing on Friday former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Swami Chinmayanand’s plea seeking quashing of a trial court’s rejection of an application for the withdrawal of a 2011 rape and criminal intimidation case against him. The trial court in May 2018 rejected the application filed by the public prosecutor in the case in March that year.
Chinmayanand has moved the high court seeking quashing of the rejection order, the charge sheet filed in October 2012, as well as the entire proceedings of the case filed in 2011 in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur.
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A former woman disciple and manager of Chinmayanand ashram filed the case alleging that she was held captive, raped, and assaulted for years.
The high court last year in February granted bail to Chinmayanand in a separate case months after he was arrested when a 23-year-old woman accused him of sexual harassment and blackmail. The woman was a student of the Chinmayanand-controlled SS Law College in Shahjahanpur.
A Special Investigation Team formed on the directions of the Supreme Court investigated the case, which came to light after the student posted a video in August 2019 on social media alleging that “a senior leader of the saint community” was harassing and threatening to kill her. The law student went missing a day later. Her father later lodged a complaint, accusing Chinmayanand of harassing his daughter.
{{/usCountry}}A Special Investigation Team formed on the directions of the Supreme Court investigated the case, which came to light after the student posted a video in August 2019 on social media alleging that “a senior leader of the saint community” was harassing and threatening to kill her. The law student went missing a day later. Her father later lodged a complaint, accusing Chinmayanand of harassing his daughter.
{{/usCountry}}Chinmayanand was expelled from the BJP after his arrest.