Justice R Banumathi on Monday recused herself from hearing the pleas challenging Allahabad High Court order which granted bail to former Union Minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand in a rape case and seeking transfer of the case to Delhi.
The petitions were subsequently listed before the Bench of Justices Banumathi and AS Bopanna today, when the former recused herself from hearing the case.
Chinmayanand is accused of sexually abusing a law student of Shahjahanpur law college, an institution funded by a trust run by him.
The Apex Court had agreed to hear the plea for transfer of the case on March 2 after Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on last Friday.
Gonsalves during the previous hearing had apprised the court that the accused in the case, Chinmayanand, has been enlarged on bail, and that the victim feared for her life.
Allahabad High Court’s Justice Rahul Chaturvedi on February 3 had granted bail to Chinmayanand.
On November 16, 2019, the court had reserved its order after hearing the counsels from both sides.
Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20 last year under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape.
Section 376C criminalises sexual intercourse by a person in authority. … This means the provision criminalises the abuse of position by a person in authority, if he “induces or seduces” any woman to have sexual intercourse with him.
The Supreme Court intervened after the 23-year-old law student went missing for a few days in August last year after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse.
In another case, the victim was charged with trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape. The high court granted her bail on December 4, 2019.