The Supreme Court today has agreed to hear a plea that challenged the order of Allahabad High Court that granted bail to the former Union Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Swami Chinmayanand in a rape case.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said that it may consider listing the plea filed by the victim challenging the Allahabad HC order, in the next week.

Earlier, on 3 February, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Chinmayanand, who was arrested on 20 September 2019, by the Special Investigation Team of Uttar Pradesh Police, in a case of sexual exploitation of a woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur. Subsequently, Chinmayanand was disowned by the ruling BJP after the sexual abuse charges surfaced.

In a parallel case, the SIT had also arrested the student after a complaint that she and her friends had allegedly tried to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand, threatening to release video clips of massages, that she was forced to perform on the former minister. However, she was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on 4 December.

Justice Rahul Chaturvedi of the Allahabad High Court stated that “Both parties crossed their limits and at this stage, it is very difficult to adjudicate as to who exploited whom. In fact, both of them used each other,” and granted bail to Chinmayanand on 3 February.

The honorable apex court agreed to hear the matter on 24 February.