Chinmayanand discharged from hospital; sent to Shahjahanpur jail

Former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand has been sent to Shahjahanpur jail after being discharged from the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow.

A court on Monday dismissed the bail pleas of Chinmayanand and the law student who had accused him of rape.

District Court Judge Ram Babu Sharma had reserved the order in the matter after hearing arguments from both sides.

A local court had on September 20 sent Chinmayanand to judicial custody for 14 days for sexually assaulting the law student. The law student was also arrested on September 25 and sent to 14-day judicial custody for allegedly demanding extortion money.

The Special investigation team (SIT) probing the rape case had said that the law student affirmed that she demanded Rs 5 crore as extortion money from Chinmayanand.

The law student went missing on August 24 after a video of her alleging that a person from 'Sant Samaj' had threatened to kill her and her parents went viral on the social media. Chinmayanand's team had, in turn, filed an extortion case.

The student, who studied in a college run by Chinmayanand, has also testified before a local court that she was repeatedly raped by the BJP leader for over a year. She had also said that the accused recorded the incident on camera and used it to blackmail her.