Chinmayanand should be booked under rape charges in Shahjahanpur case, says Cong MLA Aradhana Mishra

Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra on Sunday said that her party will launch a massive Padyatra from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow in support of the girl student, who has levelled rape allegations against former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand and is currently in jail.

She demanded that Chimayanand should be booked under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"Padyatra will begin on September 30 and will continue till October 7. Rape accused Chinmayanand was arrested but Yogi government is standing in his support. When the rape case came to the fore, the government did not do anything. Court constituted SIT which is investigating the case. The girl was slapped with an extortion case. A case under Section 376 of IPC has not been registered; he has been booked under Section 376 c only," she told reporters here.

"Why he was quiet if the girl had demanded money? When the girl registered the case then only money extortion case was registered. He has been undergoing treatment in AC room of PGI and the victim is in jail. Her family is being threatened. She should be released and the case should be heard in a fast track court," Mishra added.

The Congress leader said that the girl's father has written a letter to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and asked for her support.

Mishra said that All India Mahila Congress President Sushmita Dev will launch the programme and senior party leaders will be present at the foot march which will make stops at Lakhimpur, Sitapur and Ataria.

A local court in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur had on September 20 sent Chinmayanand to judicial custody for 14 days for sexually assaulting the law student. He was charged with an offence not amounting to rape, stalking and criminal intimidation.

Earlier, during the SIT interrogation, the student had accepted that she instigated one of her friends to send messages to Chinmayanand demanding extortion money.

After her confession, she was arrested and produced before the court, which sent her to 14-day judicial custody.

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.

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

Chinmayanand, who was the Minister of State for Home in the Vajpayee government, was admitted to Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences on September 23 after he complained of chest pain.