Page 23 - 31OCT2019E

legal

It all began after a video went viral on missing the following day. an inmate of his ashram. (Tehelka carried
Facebook on August 23, a law student of Chinmayanand is the president of the story: http://old.tehelka.com/will-swa-
a Shahjahanpur college, alleged that she managing committee of Shahjahanpur’s mi-chinmayanands-victim-be-given-
was being exploited by powerful peo- Swami Shukdevanand Postgraduate Col- justice-after-14-years/).
ple. This video was widely circulated on lege, where the woman studied law and Just after posting video on Facebook
social media wherein the woman sought engaged in work. Chinmayanand has an the women went underground and her
help from PM Narendra Modi and Uttar ashram in Shahjahanpur and runs five father lodged complaint against Swami
Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath to do justice colleges in the town. He also has ashrams Chinmayanand apprehending her kid-
to her. in Haridwar and Rishikesh. In 2011, Chin- napping. The father also alleged that his
“A big leader of the Sant Samaj who mayanand had been accused of rape by daughter had been sexually exploited
has destroyed the lives of many other by Chinmayanand. A case under Section
girls and also has threatened to kill me... 364 and 506 for kidnaping and criminal
I want to request Yogi ji and Modi ji to Chinmayanand, arrested intimidation was registered but before
help me. He has threatened to kill my his complaint, police allowed a com-
family. Please help me,” she said in her by the SIT, was booked plaint lodged by his lawyer Om Singh,
video posted on her Facebook page on under Section 376C, a “Chinmayanand received a text message
August 24 at 4 pm. She also claimed that from an unknown number over messag-
she possessed evidence against the influ- charge short of rape, ing app WhatsApp on 22 August, which
ential Swami Chinmayanand and alleged on the basis of the allegedly threatened that videos showing
who claims to keep the district magis- him naked and in obscene circumstanc-
trate and superintendent of police into complaint filed by the es would be leaked online if he didn’t pay
his pockets. She did not explicitly name 23-year-old woman who up 5 crore. the police.”
Chinmayanad in the video. She went Later talking to local media, Chinma-
studies at a college run yanand said he was being framed and
• Voice concern Police take Chinmayanand and by his ashram alleged that the woman was part of a
student to Lucknow for voice sample tests conspiracy against him. He claimed that
it was an attempt to extort the former
MP. “the case was an attempt to malign
the Yogi Adityanath government. Earlier
Kuldeep Singh Sengar was implicated
and now I am being targeted,” he added.
Political observers say if Chinma-
yanand’s statement is to be believed that
it is a conspiracy against chief minis-
ter Yogi Adityanath then who could be
politically benefited by unsettling him?
The proximity between them is not a hid-
den fact as Yogi Adityanath went out of
the way to withdraw another rape case
pending against Chinmayanand filed by
his former inmate. The victim protested
withdrawal and wrote to chief justice of
India and chief justice of UP. The court
also not accepted withdrawal orders and
proceeded further with the trial.
Meanwhile when the case started
getting national attention, a group of
Supreme Court lawyers filed a plea in the
top court. The Supreme Court lawyers
asked the Chief Justice of India to take
suo motu cognizance of media reports of
the missing law student. The lawyers said
they did not want a repeat of the Unnao
rape case. The lawyers’ plea noted the
case’s striking similarity to the Unnao