Swami Chinmayanand rape case: Plea heard in SC for transferring case to Delhi HC

The Supreme Court on Friday (February 28) agreed to hear on March 2 the plea of complainant law student that the rape case against former union minister Swami Chinmayanand be transferred to a Delhi court from Uttar Pradesh.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde was told by senior advocate Collin Gonsalves, appearing for the complainant woman that the rape case be transferred to Delhi as she apprehended a threat to her life in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench, while agreeing to hear the matter, asked the lawyer to approach the administration for seeking protection. Gonsalves, however, said that a gunman has been given to her by the UP Police for her security.

Earlier also a plea was filed against the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to Chinmayanand. The high court had on February 3 granted bail to Chinmayanand, who was arrested in the case of sexual exploitation of the woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20 last year under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape. The section is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position to “induce or seduce” a woman to have sex with him.

In a parallel case, the woman was charged with trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape. The high court had granted her bail on December 4, last year.

The Supreme Court had stepped in after the 23-year-old law student went missing for a few days in August last year after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse. A special investigation team of Uttar Pradesh police, formed on the directions of the apex court, arrested Chinmayanand about a month later.

The SIT also arrested the student after a complaint that she and her friends had allegedly tried to extort ₹5 crore from Chinmayanand, threatening to make public videos showing her giving massages to him.