UP: Court denies girl student's bail plea

A local court here on Wednesday denied bail to the girl student, who had levelled charges of rape against BJP leader and former union minister Swami Chinmayanand, after he was arrested earlier in the day by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for alleged extortion.

A local court here on Wednesday denied bail to the girl student, who had levelled charges of rape against BJP leader and former union minister Swami Chinmayanand, after she was arrested earlier in the day by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for alleged extortion.

"There was no basis on which the law students had asked for bail from the court. She was gang leader... Keeping this in mind the court cancelled her bail plea," said Chinmayanand's lawyer Manendra Singh.

Earlier, Singh said that at the request of the SIT, the court had sent her to 14 days of judicial remand.

Last week, Chinmayanand was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police which charged him with an offence of not amounting to rape, stalking and criminal intimidation.

The SIT headed by IG Naveen Arora also arrested three friends of the woman on charges of allegedly trying to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand, criminal intimidation, causing the disappearance of evidence and sending offensive messages to him.

While Chinmayanand accepted "all evidences" that have come up against him, the three friends of the woman - Sanjay Singh, Vikram, Sachin - have accepted demanding the money from Chinmayanand, Arora told reporters.

Chinmayanand, who was the minister of state for home in the Vajpayee government and ran a college in Shahjahanpur where the girl was a student, was produced before a local court which remanded him to 14-days judicial custody.

Earlier on Monday, Chinmayanand was admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute (SGPGI) following symptoms of angina.

( With inputs from ANI )