A special court for lawmakers on 26th March 2021, Friday acquitted former Union Minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of keeping a law student in his detention allegedly to sexually assault her.
The Hon’ble special judge while acquitting the accused also mentioned that the petitioner was unable to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Subsequently, the Hon’ble court also stated that the victim student too had turned hostile throughout the trial in the case against the accused Chinmayanand.
Thereafter for the want of evidence the Hon’ble court also acquitted the law student and other co-accused in the present case of the charges of trying to extract money from the BJP leader.
Needful to mention that at the time of the pronouncement of the verdict, Chinmayanand, and other accused persons were present in the Hon’ble court. Soon after the Hon’ble court-ordered acquittal as all the eyewitnesses had turned hostile in both cases.
In the background, the present case against the accused was lodged on 27th August 2019 on a complaint of the victim student’s father, who had claimed that her daughter was pursuing LLM in a college run by the accused ashram and he further mentioned that her daughter was living in a hostel there. The victim student’s father had stated that her daughter’s mobile phone was switched off since 23rd August 2019, additionally, he found through her Facebook account that she had been threatened by Chinmayanand and his accomplices of her physical harassment and rape, besides dire consequences.
The student’s father had expressed apprehension that to some degree unpleasant had occurred to his daughter. He further added that when he tried to contact the accused, the accused had switched off his mobile. Thereafter, the accused was under arrest in the present case and sent to jail. Later, the police investigation was finished in the present case and a charge sheet against the accused was filed and submitted under section 376-C of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as “IPC, 1860”) a felony about the abuse of one’s position by a person in authority to persuade or seduce a woman under his charge to have sexual intercourse, not amounting to rape besides other sections.
On the other hand, at the same police station FIR was filed against the law student and her friends, allegedly for demanding Rs 5 crore as blackmail from the accused. In the present case filed by the accused against the law student and her friends, the charge sheet was filed and submitted, indicting them under section 385 of the IPC, 1860 for putting a person in fear of injury for extortion and various other sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
