Court dismisses Chinmayanand's plea to book student under Gangster Act

A local court on Tuesday dismissed a petition from former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand, who is accused of rape by a law student, demanding that the Gangster Act should be slapped on the woman and three others for trying to blackmail him.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Omveer Singh dismissed the petition saying it was not in his jurisdiction.He directed that it should be moved before the relevant court, Chinmayanand's lawyer Pooja Singh told PTI.

Chinmayanand had also sent a letter to the state police chief demanding that the stringent Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act should be invoked against the woman and her three friends.

While the former Union minister has been booked under the Indian Penal Code's section 376C, a charge short of rape, the woman and three others face a separate extortion case.

They were arrested last month on the basis Chinmayanand's complaint that they tried to extort Rs 5 crore, threatening to upload online video clips showing him getting massages from her.

According to the petition, Sachin Sengar, one the accused in the extortion case, had come to meet Chinmayanand at his home on August 9.

He allegedly told Chinmayanand that he had all the evidence with him and a false case will be lodged if the former minister did not pay up.

The petition claimed that Sanjay Sengar has been earlier booked in two cases, including one for attempt to murder, at Shahjahanpur's Tilhar police station.

The plea alleged that cases have also been lodged against the student's father. It levelled allegations against the woman's mother as well.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday gave two weeks to Chinmayanand's lawyer and the SIT to file their objections to a bail plea by the law student.

The counsel and the special investigation team were asked to file their reply to the bail application by November 6, the next date of hearing.

Chinmayanand has been booked under section 376C of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which is usually applied in cases where a person abuses his position to "induce or seduce" a woman under his charge to have "sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape".

He also faces charges of stalking, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.The woman studied at one of the colleges run by the politician's ashram.