The Supreme Court today has agreed to hear the plea seeking transfer of rape case against former Union Minister, Swami Chinmayanand, on Monday i.e. 2 March.
The plea was filed by Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves who has sought transfer of the trial of Chinmayanand rape case from Lucknow to Delhi, claiming a threat to the 23-year-old survivors’ life.
“The accused is a powerful man. The victim’s life is in danger,” asserted Gonsalves.
The bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde while suggesting to take appropriate measures to make an application for police protection also stated to hear the transfer plea on Monday.
Earlier on 3 February, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Swami Chinmayanand who was arrested on 20 September 2019, by the Special Investigation Team of Uttar Pradesh Police, in a case of sexual exploitation of a woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur. A case was registered against him 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.
Subsequently, Chinmayanand was disowned by the ruling BJP after the sexual abuse charges surfaced.
In a parallel case, the SIT had also arrested the student after a complaint that she and her friends had allegedly tried to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand, threatening to release video clips of massages, that she was forced to perform on Chinmayanand. However, she was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on 4 December.
Justice Rahul Chaturvedi of the Allahabad High Court while stating that “Both parties crossed their limits and at this stage, it is very difficult to adjudicate as to who exploited whom. In fact, both of them used each other,” and granted bail to Chinmayanand on 3 February.
Nonetheless, a plea challenging the bail granted to the former Union Minister by the Allahabad High Court was also filed before the Supreme Court bench.
