A local court in Shahjahanpur on Monday rejected the bail plea of former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand as well as that of the law student who has accused him of rape.
Both are currently in judicial custody.
While Mr. Chinmayanand is accused of misusing his authority to seduce or induce a woman to have sexual intercourse with him, the law student is charged with extortion among other clauses of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.
Om Singh, Mr. Chinmayanand’s counsel and spokesperson, said the district judge rejected both the bail applications.
The court heard “our argument and was even in agreement with certain points, but eventually rejected the bail application,” he said.
Mr. Singh said Mr. Chinmayanand would appeal against the order in the Allahabad High Court.
The law student continues to be lodged in jail, while Mr. Chinmayanand is admitted to a hospital in Lucknow after he reportedly fell ill.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Congress leaders led by former union minister Jitin Prasada were denied permission by the Shahjahanpur administration for a “ nyay yatra ” to Lucknow in solidarity with the law student.
Mr. Prasada said he was put under house detention and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of “quashing an individual’s fundamental rights”.
“U.P. is no Kashmir yet today I am in preventive custody for simply wanting to highlight the plight of the Shahjahanpur rape victim,” Mr. Prasada tweeted.
The Shahjahanpur administration denied permission for the ‘ padhyatra ’ citing the law and order situation due to Durga Puja, Navratri and Ramleela festivals. Since the ‘ padhyatra ’ route included crowed roads, it was not possible to arrange for police security at such a short notice, the City Magistrate said.
