SC agrees to hear plea against Chinmayanand in rape case

New Delhi: Shahjahanpur law college student, allegedly raped by senior BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand on Thursday moved Supreme Court against bail granted to him by the Allahabad High Court.

The apex court said it is likely to hear the plea on Monday.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves mentioned the plea which challenged the Allahabad High Court order of earlier this month before a bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde.

The top court agreed to hear the matter and posted it for next week on Monday.

The bench said it may consider listing the plea of the victim next week.

The Allahabad High Court had on February 3 granted bail to former Union minister and senior BJP functionary Chinmayanand, who was arrested in a case of sexual exploitation of a woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur. The High Court observed that “both used each other”.

Justice Rahul Chaturvedi said, “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.”

Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20 last year.

The apex court had acted after the 23-year-old law student went missing in August last year after alleging sexual abuse through a video clip on social media.

The SIT had also arrested the student on a complaint that she and her friends had allegedly attempted to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand.

IANS