Law Student Disowns Rape Charges Against Chinmayanand in Court

The law student denied that she had made any allegations against the former minister.

Swami Chinmayanand has been accused of rape by a law student. 

(Photo: The Quint) 

The law student who had accused former Union minister Chinmayanand of sexually exploiting her turned hostile to her statement before a special MP-MLA court in Lucknow on Tuesday, 13 October.

The student denied that she had made any allegations against the former minister.

The prosecution then moved an application under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), seeking action against her for perjury, reported news agency PTI.

Chinmayanand was a Minister of State for Home in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government. The 72-year-old was arrested in September after the 23-year-old woman had accused him of sexually exploiting her for a year. She was also taken into custody on charges of trying to extort money from the former BJP leader. The law student had enrolled in one of his educational institutions at Shahjahanpur.

Chinmayanand had walked out of Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur district jail to a grand welcome by his supporters on Wednesday. This was two days after he was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court.

Chinmayanand has also faced charges under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 354-D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Section 376-C (abuse of one's position by a person in authority to induce or seduce a woman).

(With inputs from PTI)