Survivor Moves SC on Chinmayanand Bail, Case to Be Heard on 24 Feb
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves challenged plea by Allahabad HC order granting bail to Chinmayanand.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday, 20 February, agreed to hear a plea on Monday, 24 February, by the Shahjahanpur law student survivor against the bail granted to former Union Minister Swamy Chinmayanand in the rape case filed against him.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was told by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves that the plea challenged the Allahabad HC order granting bail to Chinmayanand earlier this month.
The bench said it may consider listing the plea of the victim next week.
Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the woman who has alleged rape by him studied, was arrested on 20 September last year.
The apex court had stepped in after the 23-year-old law student went missing for a few days in August 2019 after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse. A special investigation team of the Uttar Pradesh Police, formed on the directions of the apex court, arrested Chinmayanand.
The Allahabad High Court had, on 3 February, granted bail to him.
The former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, who is out on bail in the case, also appeared before a special MP/MLA court on Wednesday.
In a parallel case, the woman was arrested for trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape.
She and her three friends had allegedly threatened to release video clips of massages she claimed she was forced to perform on the politician, who was disowned by the ruling BJP after the sexual abuse charges surfaced.
The high court granted the woman bail in the extortion case on 4 December.
The court on Wednesday also issued a non-bailable warrant against the woman student for not appearing before it in another case of extortion lodged by advocate Om Singh with the Shahjahanpur police.
Chinmayanand, 72, was released from the Shahjahanpur district jail after the Allahabad High Court granted him bail.
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