In a courtroom twist on Tuesday the Shahjahanpur based law student who had accused former Union Minister Chinmayanand of sexually assaulting her, has claimed that she did not level any such charge against the BJP leader. Appearing before a court in Lucknow, the LLM student categorically denied that she had levelled any allegations against Chinmayanand. The prosecution immediately moved an application under Section 340 of the CrPC, seeking action against the law student for perjury. Judge P K Rai directed his office to register the application and asked the prosecution to furnish a copy of the application to the victim and the accused. The application will be heard on October 15.
The Allahabad High Court in February this year granted bail to Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the student was pursuing her law degree. Chinmayanand was arrested in September last year. The case was registered under Section 376-C of the IPC, an offence pertaining to the abuse of one's position by a person in authority to "induce or seduce" a woman under his charge to have "sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape". Chinmayanand (72) also faced charges under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 354-D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
According to government lawyer Abhay Tripathi, the law student had lodged an FIR in this regard with the Lodhi Colony police station of New Delhi on September 5, 2019. The student’s father lodged another complaint in Shahjahanpur and both FIRs were merged. An SIT had recorded the student’s statement. Later, her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC was recorded in Shahjahanpur. In both statements, she had supported the FIR version but during trial yesterday, she changed her statement and denied the facts mentioned in her complaint.
“Since she (law student) has turned hostile, I have moved an application under Section 340 of the CrPC,” Tripathi said. Earlier, the investigating officer had cited 33 witnesses and 29 documentary evidence in the 13-page charge sheet.
The Allahabad high court had on February 3, 2020 transferred the trial from Shahjahanpur to the Lucknow's MP-MLA court.
The case first came to light after the woman went missing on August 24, a day after she posted a video on social media alleging that a "senior leader of the sant community" was harassing and intimidating her. Her father filed a complaint, accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, a charge refuted by the former Union minister's lawyer who claimed it was a "conspiracy" to blackmail him.
An SIT was constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government on the orders of the Supreme Court in September to investigate the charges levelled by the woman. The law student was also later charged with trying to extort money from Chinmayanand. The 23-year-old woman and her three friends were booked based on Chinmayanand's complaint that they had demanded Rs. 5 crores from him. The woman was granted bail in December.
