The Allahabad High Court today turned down the law student’s petition seeking a stay on arrest in the extortion case filed by Swami Chinmayanand against her, saying that it has no jurisdiction to pass the order. BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand is accused of raping the girl and he has later on filed an extortion case against her.
The court said that this was a special bench monitoring the probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the petitioner could file a similar petition in a regular court.
Moreover, Allahabad High Court’s division bench, comprising Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Manju Rani Chauhan, also turned down the woman’s plea to record her statement afresh before the magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The court asked the woman to submit an application in this regard in the trial court.
It also expressed satisfaction over the SIT status report in a sexual assault case filed by a postgraduate student against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.
The law student from Shahjahanpur, who has accused former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand of raping and physically exploiting her, was on September 20 (Friday) charged with extortion in a case filed by Chinmayanand, even as the SIT probing the case arrested him.
SIT chief Naveen Arora said the former BJP MP had confessed to “almost all” the allegations made against him, barring rape. Despite the student’s complaint, Chinmayanand was not charged with rape but was arrested under Section 376 C of the IPC, which pertains to misusing authority to seduce or induce a woman to have sexual intercourse.
The SIT also arrested the victim’s friend, a man named Sanjay Singh along with two others, who had allegedly sent a WhatsApp message demanding a ransom of Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand on September 20.