Declared ABSCONDER a week ago, rape accused Chinmayanand appears before court to file bail papers

Last week, an MP/MLA court declared rape accused former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand as an absconder.

Shahjahanpur (UP): Former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand on Friday appeared before a special MP-MLA court here and filed bail papers as directed by the Allahabad High Court while granting him interim anticipatory bail in a rape case. According to his counsel Firoz Hasan Khan, the former minister submitted two bail bonds of Rs 1 lakh each. The special court fixed January 16 as the next date of hearing. The Allahabad High Court on December 19 had granted interim anticipatory bail to Chinmayanand till the next date of hearing and directed the complainant woman and the state government to file their replies within four weeks. In the high court, the former minister's counsel Anoop Trivedi submitted that he is a 76-year-old man and has been falsely implicated in the case.

"Chinmayanand does not have any criminal history. The former MP is also running several medical and educational institutions and is a person of high political and spiritual value," Trivedi said.

Earlier on 15th December, former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand had been declared as an absconder by a court here. Superintendent of Police (SP) S Anand told PTI on Saturday that the directives of the MP-MLA court are being complied with. "Chinmayanand was not found at his address. We are conducting raids to trace him. We will soon find him and produce him in the court," he said.

Government lawyer Neelima Saxena said the MP-MLA court declared Chinmayanand as an absconder on December 15. Saxena added that the court has directed the Shahjahanpur SP to produce Chinmayanand before it on January 16 and that the directive be pasted on the former Union minister's house as well at public places.

Additional Advocate General M C Chaturvedi and Additional Government Advocate A K Sand opposed the bail application on behalf of the state government. In 2011, on a complaint from one of his disciples, a case of sexual exploitation was registered against Chinmayanand, the founder of Mumukshu Ashram.

The Uttar Pradesh government had in 2018 sent a letter to the court through the district magistrate to withdraw the case, but the complainant had objected to it.
The application for withdrawal was dismissed by the court and a bailable warrant was issued against the former Union minister.

Chinmayanand had then filed an appeal in the high court for the withdrawal of the case. Once the high court rejected his appeal, he approached the Supreme Court, but the top court also rejected his appeal.