The District and Sessions court of Shahjahanpur on Monday rejected the bail applications of both former BJP minister Chinmayanand in the sexual assault case as well as the complainant, the 23-year-old law student arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 5 crore from the 72-year-old politician. A lower court had earlier rejected the bail pleas of the two. “District and Sessions Court judge Ram Babu Sharma heard the bail applications of Chinmayanand and the student. The court rejected both the bail applications,” government counsel Anuj Kumar Singh said. Based on a complaint filed by the student who studied in a law college run by a Trust led by Chinmayanand, the former Union minister was booked under IPC sections 376-C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority), 354-D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation). Though the student had accused the former minister of raping her, he was not booked for rape. Meanwhile, the SIT also booked the law student and three youths for alleged extortion attempt based on a complaint filed by Chinmayanand’s lawyer. She has been booked under IPC sections 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence of the offence, or giving false information to screen offender). The two cases are being probed by the SIT formed by the state government on the direction of the Supreme Court and are running parallel. “We will appeal against today’s judgment in the Allahabad High Court,” Chinmayanand’s lawyer Om Singh said. The family of the student said they would also move the High Court. Meanwhile, Chinmayanand was discharged from the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute (SGPGI) in Lucknow where he was admitted on September 23 after he complained of chest pain “The former minister has been sent back to Shahjahanpur jail from where he was brought to the SGPGI on September 23. On the same day, doctors at SGPGI conducted an angiography and no significant blockage was found,” said SGPGI’s Director Rakesh Kapoor.
