LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to withdraw the rape and abduction case lodged against former junior home minister Swami Chinamayanand - more than seven years after he was booked under these charges by the Shahjahanpur Police.

The FIR against him was lodged in November 2011, on the complaint of a girl who had spent several years at his ashram. The girl had alleged she was kept at an ashram in Haridwar and raped by the former minister. Her father had lodged an FIR against him at Kotwali police station in Shahjahanpur. However, Chinmayanand moved the high court, which had stayed his arrest. The case has been pending since then.

Now, Shahjahanpur administration, on March 9, 2018, wrote to the prosecution officer of the case, of which TOI accessed a copy, for the withdrawal of the case. "The administration has decided to withdraw the case as per the section 321 of the CrPC and the public prosecutor is requested to submit this application before the court," the letter states.

The note does not cite a reason such as lack of evidence or witnesses turning hostile. Section 321 in the CrPC allows a government lawyer toin charge of a case may, with the consent of the court, at any time before the judgment is pronounced withdraw from a prosecution of any person.

The move comes at a time when government is drawing flak for its decision to withdraw 131 cases related to 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Earlier, the CM had announced in the house to withdraw nearly 20,000 cases of 'political nature.'

In her complaint, the survivor had alleged that besides rape, Chinamayand had threatened to get her killed if she dared lodge complaint against him. Chinamayananand has been a three-time BJP MP, having won from Badaun (1991), Machchlishahr (1998) and Jaunpur (1999).

Chinamayananand, a three-time BJP MP, had been appointed the MoS for internal security in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

