Face of Nation : Former Union Minister and BJP leader Chinmayanand, who was arrested on Friday on charges of intimidation and sexual harassment of a law student, is now facing more trouble from his peers. The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the organisation of Hindu saints and ascetics, has called a meeting of all the Akharas in Haridwar on 10 October to expel BJP leader and former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand from the community. According to sources, he will remain ousted from the saint community unless acquitted.
It is pertinent to mention that a month after a law student levelled charges of rape against Chinmayanand, he was arrested on Friday by the Uttar Pradesh Police. However, he was charged with an offence not amounting to rape, stalking and criminal intimidation.
The matter came to the fore when the girl went missing on 24 August after putting up a Facebook post alleging that a person from ‘sant samaj’ threatened to kill her and her kin. She did not name Chinmayanand then.
She was tracked down in Rajasthan six days later and produced before the Supreme Court the same day after a direction from the apex court. The apex court then directed setting up an SIT to probe the matter.
