SC rejects plea challenging bail granted to Chinmayanand in sexual exploitation case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand in a sexual exploitation case lodged by a law

student.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Navin Sinha said the reason given by the high court in its February 3 order granting bail to Chinmayanand "does not warrant any interference".

The apex court agreed however to hear a separate plea filed by the woman and her father seeking transfer of trial in the case from Uttar Pradesh to a court in Delhi.

The bench, which refused to stay the proceedings before a trial court in Uttar Pradesh, issued notices to the state, Chinmayanand and others on the transfer petition and directed them to file their responses within four

weeks.

The high court had granted bail to Chinmayanand who was arrested in a case of sexual exploitation of the woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He has denied the allegations.