Bigg Boss fame Swami Om says allegations against Chinmayanand ‘ploy to defame Hindu saints’

Weeks after a law student levelled rape and harassment allegations at the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former union minister Swami Chinmayanand, voices for and against him are getting louder. The latest to extend support to Chinmayanand is Big Boss 10 contestant Swami Om, who has dubbed the charges against the former minister as a ‘ploy to defame Hindu saints’. He also accused some judges of insulting the former minister.

Talking to reporters in Shahjahanpur, Swami Om (Om Ji Maharaj), said, “Merely on the basis of a statement and some concocted videos, Swami Chinmayanand is being targeted. This is a deep conspiracy. Some people are playing into the hand of those who want to defame Hindu saints.”

He said that people who had been ‘supporting left-wing terrorists’ were also backing the allegations against Chinmayanand.

While some groups have been demanding registration of a rape case against Chinmayanand, based on the statement given by the Shahjahanpur law college student, others under the banner of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Dara Sena in Shahjahanpur have come out in support of the former minister, calling the allegations false.

Rakesh Sharan, leader of one of the local outfits, said, “There have been such attempts in the past too. This is a plan to defame Swami Chinmayanand. Such frivolous charges have been levelled against some other saints too.”

He claimed that saints from different parts of the country as well as from abroad had reached Shahjahanpur to support Chinmayanand.

Meanwhile, outfits like ‘Rihai Manch’, ‘Insaani Biradari’, ‘Pichada Mahasabha’ and ‘Lok Rajniti Manch’ staged a protest in the state capital, demanding Chinamayanand’s arrest.

Ramon Magsaysay awardee and social activist Sandeep Pandey asked that since the victim had recorded her statement and accused Chinmayanand of rape, why hadn’t a rape FIR been registered in the matter. “Why is the accused roaming free? It is because the government is patronising him,” he alleged.

He said that other cases had also taken a similar route. “You take the example of Jharkhand’s Tabrez Ansari lynching case -- the government there put all its efforts into shielding the culprits,” he alleged.

To recall, a 23-year-old law student of Shahjahanpur went missing on August 24, a day after posting a video on the social media in which she had accused “a big leader of the saint society” of threatening her and “destroying the lives of several girls”. Soon after, her father registered a kidnapping complaint, accusing Chinmayanand.

On August 27, the former union minister was booked for allegedly kidnapping the woman. Later, she was located in Rajasthan where she said she had escaped as she feared for her life. Later, the woman filed a 12-page complaint against the former minister, alleging rape and harassment.

On the directions of the Supreme Court, a special investigation team started probing into the matter.