The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday granted bail to the law student from Shahjahanpur who had accused BJP leader and former union minister Swami Chinmayanand of sexual exploitation and rape.
The law student was arrested on September 25 by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Uttar Pradesh police on charges of trying to extort ₹5 crore from Mr. Chinmayanand, as alleged by him. She has been lodged in a jail since then.
While arresting her, along with her three male friends, Sanjay Singh, Sachin Sengar and Vikram alias Durgesh, the SIT had concluded that the four planned the extortion against Mr. Chinmayanand and sent him messages demanding ₹5 crore.
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A bench of Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh passed the order granting bail to the student in an open court, said Swetashwa Agarwal, her lawyer.
"The court observed that the chargesheet has already been submitted by the police and no further investigation remains to be conducted, and the victim is already in jail for the last two and a half months. All this weighed upon the court, which thought it fit to grant bail," Mr. Agarwal told The Hindu .
Except for the offence under the Information Technology Act, most of the other sections lodged against the accused law student are bailable offences, Mr. Agarwal said.
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Mr. Chinmayanand, who is accused of misusing his authority to seduce or induce a women to have sexual intercourse with him, among other offences, is still lodged in jail.