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Chinmayanand, Rape Accused BJP Leader, May Lose His Sainthood, Says Report

The Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad, the highest decision making body of saints, has reportedly decided to expel him.
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Facebook/chinmayanand.sarswati/
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BJP leader and former union minister Chinmayanand, who was accused by a law student of rape, abduction and torture, is likely to lose his sainthood.

Known as ‘Swami’ Chinmayanand among his followers, the accused BJP leader is now in jail.

A report by news agency IANS said that the highest decision making body of saints, the Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP) has ecided to expel the rape accused for the community.

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The report quoted ABAP president, Mahant Narendra Giri as saying, “Chinmayanand has accepted his misdeeds and there could be nothing more shameful for the saint community. He will be externed until the day he is exonerated from the court.”

Chinmayanand was arrested on 20 September, almost an entire month after a law student of a university where he is board member made a Facebook video speaking out. He was sent to 14 day judicial custody.

The girl, without naming the so-called saint, said that she had been tortured, raped and threatened for days. She also said that her and her family’s lives were in danger.

After the video went viral the parents of the 23-year-old woman named BJP leader Chinmayanand. The girl went missing for days until she was found by the police in Rajasthan and was brought to Delhi by the police.

While an SIT was set up to look into the allegations of rape, sources told PTI that the SIT also booked the woman on charges of causing disappearance of evidence.

The sources said that the SIT had on Friday registered a case against the woman’s three friends — Sanjay Singh, Sachin Sengar, Vikram alias Durgesh — and an unnamed person (Ms A).

They said the unnamed person was the law student herself, but they had not disclosed her identity in view of the Supreme Court guidelines.

SIT chief Naveen Arora had on Friday said that the three friends, when questioned in view of a video clip in which they were purportedly discussing extortion, had accepted their involvement in the case.

They have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 385 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 201(disappearance of evidences), 35 (criminal act done with a criminal knowledge or intention) and 67 of the Information Technology Act.

“I have nothing to do with the extortion case. I think all this drama is being done to dilute my charges of rape.”

The three men were arrested by the SIT.

On her name being included in the extortion case, the woman said, “I do not know if the people who helped me escape from Chinmayanand were using me. I have nothing to do with the extortion case. I think all this drama is being done to dilute my charges of rape.”

The woman had earlier threatened to self-immolate on Wednesday if he was not arrested.

“Even two days after I recorded my statement before a magistrate, Chinmayanand has not been arrested. If the government is waiting for me to die, I will sprinkle kerosene on my body and immolate myself,” she had said.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.