India: HC reserves order on bail plea of rape accused BJP leader Chinmayanand

Swami Chinmayanand

Allahabad, Nov 16 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Saturday reserved its order on a bail application of Swami Chinmayanand in the sexual harassment case filed against him by a law student of Saharanpur.

After hearing the counsel for Chinmayanand and the complainant, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi reserved his order on the bail plea of the former union minister.

Chinmayanand was arrested on September 21. Police had on August 27 booked him under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

He was later booked under section 376C of the IPC, which is usually applied in cases where a person abuses his position to "induce or seduce" a woman under his charge to have "sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape".

The law student was also arrested on the charge of trying to extort money from Chinmayanand. Another bench of the court had fixed November 27 for hearing her bail plea in the matter.