Chinmayanand acquitted of keeping woman law student in captivity
(Sourced from PTI)
A special court for lawmakers on Friday acquitted former Union Minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of keeping a law student in his captivity at Shahjahanpur allegedly to rape her. The prosecution could not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, said special judge PK Rai, acquitting him of the charges. The victim student too had turned hostile during the course of the trial.
For the want of evidence, the court acquitted the co-accused Sanjay Singh, DPS Rathore, Vikram Singh, Sachin Singh, and Ajeet Singh of the charges of trying to extort money from Chinmayanand. At the time of the pronouncement of the verdict, Chinmayanand and other accused persons were present in the court. The court ordered acquittal as all witnesses had turned hostile in both cases.
The case against Chinmayanand was lodged at Kotwali Police Station in Shahjahanpur on August 27, 2019, based on a complaint by the victim's father, who said that her daughter was pursuing LLM in a college run by Chinmayanand's ashram and was living in college's hostel.
The victim's father had said her mobile phone was switched off since August 23. He found through her Facebook account that she had been threatened by Chinmayanand and his accomplices of physical harassment and rape, besides dire consequences. The student's father had expressed apprehension that something untoward had happened to his daughter. When he tried to contact Chinmayanand, his mobile was switched off.
Chinmayanand was arrested in the case on September 20, 2019, and sent to jail. Later, a chargesheet was filed on November 4, 2019, under Section 376C of the IPC, an offense pertaining to the abuse of one's position by a person in authority to induce or seduce a woman under his charge to have sexual intercourse, not amounting to rape, besides other sections.
Advocate Om Singh lodged an FIR on August 25, 2019, at the same police station against the law student and her friends, for demanding Rs. 5 crore as extortion from Chinmayanand. The chargesheet was filed on November 4, 2019, indicting them under IPC Section 385 for putting a person in fear of injury for extortion and various other sections of the Information Technology Act.
