More trouble brews for Chinmayanand as old case of sexual harassment crops up

Shahjahanpur: There is more trouble in store for beleaguerd former Union Minister Chinmayanand, who is currently in jail on charges of sexual harassment and blackmail, leveled by a law student.

The court will on December 13 hear another sexual harassment case brought against Chinmaynand by his former devotee who was also the principal of his college.

The case that dates back to 2012 was registered in Sadar kotwali police.

The victim’s lawyer Mukesh Kumar Gupta said that the matter has been pending even though the charge sheet was filed in October 2012.

The Yogi Adityanath government, last year, had sought withdrawal of the case against Chinmayanand but the court did not grant permission for the same after the victim filed an objection.

The court had also issued a bailable warrant against Chinmayanand who then went to high court and obtained a stay order. The case files were also sent to the high court which has now returned the same to the district court.

The victim’s lawyer said that the case will now be heard in the special MP/MLA court.

The victim, in 2012, had accused Chinmayanand of holding her captive in his Mumukshu Ashram in Shahjahanpur since 2005. She claimed that she was assaulted and repeatedly raped by him and also alleged in the FIR that she had to undergo abortions twice.

Chinamayanand had rubbished the victim’s allegations. He had said that the victim, who belongs to Delhi, used to work at a call centre and had first come to him along with her mother about 11 years ago.

A Parliament member at the time, he had hired her as his official personal assistant. After 2003, she had shifted to his Shahjahanpur ashram.

He had claimed that she was initiated as a Sadhvi with the new name and was accusing him of rape after he refused to help her bag a ticket for UP assembly elections.

Interestingly, the victim later married a journalist and even returned to the ashram for a brief period, alleging domestic violence at her husband’s home. She, again, escaped from the ashram and went back to her husband.

Published on: Nov 28, 2019 at 10:16 IST

IANS