Chinmayanand case: Court asks jail admin to take law student to varsity on exam dates

The court of the chief judicial magistrate, Shahjahanpur, on Saturday directed the district jail authorities to take the law student, who accused former minister Swami Chinmayanand of rape, to the university at Bareilly for the examination starting on November 25.

Her counsel Kulvinder Singh said the court has allowed the application. “The court has asked the jail authorities to take her to the university on November 25, 26, 28 and 30,” he said.

She moved the application seeking a direction to the jail authorities to take her to the university on exam dates after the court declined her earlier plea in which she sought exemption from the mandatory 75% attendance norms of the university for the LLM 3rd semester examination.

The woman is yet to get the roll number. As per the university rules, 75% attendance is a must for attending the examination. Since the woman was in judicial custody for the last two months, this condition could not be fulfilled.

The woman was earlier a student of the Chinmayanand-controlled SS Law College in Shahjahanpur. She took admission in the university at Bareilly on October 18.

The woman was arrested on September 25 and booked under Sections 35 (criminal act done with a criminal knowledge or intention), 201 (disappearance of evidence), 385 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, currently lodged in the Shahjahanpur district jail.

Both of them were summoned earlier but they did not appear before the court on the last date of hearing.

Chinmayanand, who was arrested on September 20, was booked under Sections 376C (sexual intercourse by a person or persons taking advantage of their official position), 354 D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Five days after his arrest, the BJP said Chinmayanand; a former union minister is no longer with the party. The SIT filed the chargesheet against them and the other accused in both cases on November 6.

The woman went missing on August 24, a day after she posted a video on social media, alleging that a “senior leader of the saint community” was harassing and threatening to kill her. Following this, the woman’s father lodged a complaint, accusing Chinmayanand of harassing his daughter.