UP Govt to drop rape case against former junior Home Minister

After withdrawing a criminal case against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and having decided to withdraw 131 cases related to 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, the Uttar Pradesh government is all set to revoke a rape and abduction case against BJP leader and former Union Minister of State for Home Swami Chinamayanand.

Swami was booked more than seven years ago by the Shahjahanpur Police after a girl accused him of sexually assaulting him at an ashram in Haridwar in 2004. She was allegedly issued life threats to keep her mouth shut by Swami Chinmayanand and his henchmen.

An FIR was registered against him in November 2011. Subsequently, the HC stayed Swami’s arrest and the case has been pending since then.

In an order issued on March 6, the Yogi Adityanath has directed the Shahjahanpur District Magistrate to withdraw a seven-year-old rape case under sections 342/376/506/307/323/313 of the IPC against Swami Chinmayanad, Head of Mumuksh Ashram, DNA reported.

“The former Union minister of state for home in Vajpayee government had requested the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to withdraw the fake case against him during latter’s visit to his Mumuksh ashram on February 25 to open Mumuksh Yuva Mahotsav,” the report said, adding that “On Swami’s request, the Chief Minister immediately directed the State Law department to issue the GO for withdrawal of the rape case against the former Union minister of state for Home. Acting on the GO dated March 6, the Shahjahanpur District Magistrate office have issued a letter on March 9, duly signed by the ADM (Administration) Jitendra Sharma, directing the Public Prosecutor to file an application in the court under Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 to withdraw the rape case against Swami Chinmayanad.”

Section 321 of the CrPC allows a public prosecutor in charge of a case to withdraw from prosecution with the consent of the court at any time before the judgment is pronounced. The letter, however, does not cite any reasons for the revocation of the charges, such as lack of evidence or witnesses turning hostile.

The government decision is drawing flak from various social media users. On Twitter several users have accused the state government and BJP of lacking the political will to deal with crimes against women and shielding the accused.

Notably, after the Nirbhaya gangrape case, BJP, which was the main Opposition party then, used the people's anger to come up and came up with an election slogan that said “bahut hua naari par atyachaar, abki baar Modi sarkar” in run up to 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Narendra Modi, who was prime ministerial candidate of BJP, didn’t hesitate in politicising the incident that took place on December 16, 2012 attacked Delhi government and dubbed Delhi as “rape capital” during assembly elections. In an emotional appeal, Modi asked electorate not to forget Nirbhaya and “rape capital tag” associated with Delhi when they cast their votes.

Another senior BJP leader and its then Lok Sabha leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj had also demanded "nothing less than death penalty" for the four accused found guilty in the gang-rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in New Delhi.

Yogi Adityanath whose government has now decided to withdraw rape and abduction case against Swami Chinamayanand, had also welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict upholding the death sentence of the four accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case.

Nirbhaya was brutally assaulted and raped by the four convicts and two others in a bus in South Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend on the night of December 16, 2012. She died days later in a Singapore hospital.

Ironically, a young woman and her family tried to kill themselves in front of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in Lucknow on Sunday alleging that she was raped by a BJP MLA, but no action was taken. Her father was brutally thrashed by the accused politicians brothers and he died of organ injuries in police custody on Monday.