Allahabad HC grants bail to BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand in alleged rape case of law student

Five months after his arrest on charges of sexually exploiting a law student, former BJP MP Swami Chinmayananda was on Monday granted bail by the Allahabad high court.

The court had earlier reserved its order on Chinmayananda's bail plea in November last year.

The court also directed for a day-to-day hearing of the matter, which was currently being heard at a district court in Shahajahanpur, about 175 kilometres from here.

Chinmayananda was arrested in September last year on charges of sexually exploiting a law student of a college of which he was the director.

The law student had been granted bail by the Allahabad high court last month. The victim had also claimed that she had several videos ''exposing'' the ''sexual exploitation'' by the seer.

The seer had alleged that the law student and her two friends tried to blackmail him by threatening to make the 'videos' public.

The special investigation team (SIT), which was probing the matter, had already filed the charge sheet in the case.

The case had triggered nationwide outrage and the opposition parties had accused the state government of being ''soft'' on the seer, who also received support from several BJP and saffron leaders.