The Supreme Court on 3rd March, 2020 rejected a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to former union minister Swami Chinmayanand in a sexual exploitation case, saying that the High Court has given reasons in its order granting bail to Chinmayanand and requires no interference.
Both parties crossed their limits and at this stage, it is very difficult to adjudicate as to who exploited whom. In fact, both of them used each other the High Court had observed while granting bail to Chinmayanand.
In a parallel case, the woman was charged with allegedly trying to extort money from Chinmayanand.
However, the division bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Naveen Sinha issued a notice to the government of Uttar Pradesh, Chinmayanand and others on a separate plea seeking transfer of the case against Chinmayanand to a Delhi court.
The court has sought for a response from them within four weeks on petition. The plea has been filed by Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves.
The Court had granted bail on 3rd February, 2020. Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20, 2019 under section 376-C of the IPC for allegedly sexually abusing a 23-year old law student at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Section 376-C of IPC is applied when a person in authority or in a fiduciary relationship abuses such position or fiduciary relationship to induce or seduce any woman either in his custody or under his charge to have sexual intercourse with him.
Author - Dyuti Pandya
