Shahjahanpur case: Allahabad High Court grants anticipatory bail to Swami Chinmayanand

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 21 : The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to former Union Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand in a misconduct case.
The court has ordered the victim and the state government to file a reply in this matter within four weeks.
Justice Samit Gopal has given this order after listening to the arguments of senior advocate Anoop Trivedi, who is representing the petitioner.
The senior advocate said that the petitioner does not have any criminal history, he is running many medical and educational institutions and is a person of spiritual and educational background. The age of the petitioner is 75 years and he has no criminal history. Even before this, the court had stayed the arrest while giving interim protection to the petitioner.
The advocate said that the Supreme Court had given time till November 14, 2022, to the petitioner to surrender before the subordinate court. But there is no hindrance in granting anticipatory bail to the petitioner from the said order.
Additional Advocate General MC Chaturvedi and Additional Government Advocate Pratham opposed the bail application on behalf of the State Government.
The court has approved the anticipatory bail of Swami Chinmayanand while giving 4 weeks' time to the state government and the complainant victim to file their case through affidavit.
According to the case, the petitioner is accused of misbehaving with a disciple by taking her hostage in an ashram in the year 2011.
After this, the disciple and her family lodged an FIR under sections 307, 313, 342, 323, 376, and 506 of the IPC at the Kotwali police station in Shahjahanpur. In which charge sheet was later filed under sections 376 and 506. On March 9, 2018, the state government had issued an order to withdraw the case of misconduct lodged against Chinmayanand. The order to withdraw the case of the government was filed in the court of Shahjahanpur. The court of Shahjahanpur had considered the decision of withdrawal of the case wrong after the hearing. This decision of the lower court was challenged in the year 2018.
Swami Chinmayanand appealed for relief on the grounds of being 76 years old and having several serious ailments. The High Court upheld the decision of the lower court. Along with this, Swami Chinmayanand was asked to appear in the Shahjahanpur court by October 30 and directed to take a decision on the bail application of Chinmayanand, according to the lower court. After this, an anticipatory bail application was filed on behalf of Swami Chinmayanand in the court of Shahjahanpur, which was rejected by the lower court, and was challenged in the High Court.
Earlier on August 24, the law student went missing after a video of her alleging that a person from 'Sant Samaj' had threatened to kill her and her parents went viral on social media.
The student, who went to the college run by Chinmayanand, had later testified before a local court that she was repeatedly raped by a leader for over a year. She said that the accused recorded the incident on the camera and used it to blackmail her.