Woman who accused Chinmayanand of rape taken to Bareilly for LLM exam

The 23-year-old law student, who has accused BJP leader and former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand of rape, was taken to Bareilly on Monday (November 25) for her first-semester back paper amid a tight security.

The law student, accused of demanding extortion money from Chinmayanand and presently in jail, was taken to the MJP University in Bareilly for her first term LLM back paper, Superintendent of Police (SP), City Dinesh Tripathi said. The woman, who was studying in Chinmayanand’s Swami Shukdevanand Law College, was given admission to the Bareilly college on Supreme Court’s directions in order to ensure her education and her counsel, Kulvinder Singh, had moved an application before Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Omvir Singh to let her appear in the exam.

The CJMs court gave permission for the same on November 23, the SP said. In another development, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case has submitted a chargesheet against two BJP leaders, who have been summoned by the court, which is hearing the matter.

“Summonses have been sent to the chairman of Cooperative Bank DPS Rathore and BJP leader Ajit Singh, who have been asked to appear before the court on December 3,” government counsel Lal Saheb said. Rathore and Singh are accused of snatching a pen drive containing a video clip of the woman giving massage to Chinmayanand from her in Rajasthan’s Dausa. The post-graduate student has alleged that she was physically exploited by the 72-year-old BJP leader for a over a year.

Chinmayanand, sent to judicial custody after his arrest, was booked under section 376C of the IPC, which is usually applied in cases where a person abuses his position to “induce or seduce” a woman under his charge to have “sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape”. This is a lesser charge than section 376, under which a rape convict faces a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. The punishment under section 376C is between five and 10 years in jail. The woman and three of her friends have been arrested for demanding ₹5 crore from the BJP leader.