Chinmayanad: HC gives UP two days to file affidavit

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday got two more days from the Allahabad High Court to file an affidavit related to the Chinmayanand case, after discovering that the one already drafted had typographical errors.

The state government was supposed to file an affidavit on the status of the investigation in the case registered against former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, who is accused by a Shahjahanpur law student of raping her.

The Uttar Pradesh police have registered a case under section 376-C of the Indian Penal Code, a charge short of rape, on the basis of a complaint by the student who studied at an institution run by the BJP leader.

The bench of Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice V K Srivastava passed the order on the request of the government counsel, who asked for more time to file a fresh affidavit as the one already drafted had some typographical errors.

The Supreme Court on September 2, 2019, had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations against Chinmayanand.

The apex court had also directed that the Allahabad High Court would constitute a bench to monitor the investigation.

The SIT has been submitting a progress report before the Allahabad High Court on a regular basis.

Swami Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20 by the SIT.

The police also arrested the student following allegations that she and her friends were trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, after recording video clips of her giving him massages.

The woman said she was sexually exploited and had recorded the videos as evidence.