[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Congress leaders Jitin Prasada and Kaushal Mishra said they were put under house arrest when they were about to take out a ‘Nyay Yatra’ (march for justice) today – Monday, Sep 30 – in support of the law student jailed on charge of extorting after she had accused BJP leader and former union minister Chinmayanand of raping her.

The 5-day 180-km rally was planned from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow. Senior leaders of the party were expected to take part in the march.

Besides former Union minister Prasada and district Congress president Mishra, Ajay Kumar Lallu, leader of Congress Legislative Party in the UP Assembly, and senior party leader Dheeraj Gurjar were arrested and kept at the Police Lines, police sources said, news agency PTI reported

“SDM Sadar and CO City told me that I and Jitin Prasada have been put under house arrest. When they were asked as to why a heavy police force was deployed outside the residence of Prasada, we were told that no one will be taking out any padyatra,” Mishra told PTI.

“UP is no Kashmir yet today I am in preventive custody for simply wanting to highlight the plight of the Shahjahnpur rape victim. This BJP govt has no qualms in quashing an individual’s fundamental rights,” tweeted Jitin Prasada soon after he was taken into custody.

Defending the government, City Magistrate, Shahjahanpur Vineeta Singh said permission was denied in writing to them (Congress leaders) yesterday. “To maintain the law and order during festival season, permission was denied,” she said.

Earlier, on Sep 27 as well, UP government had refused permission to Samajwadi Party (SP) workers to meet the jailed law student. On being denied permission to meet the woman, the delegation and party workers sat on dharna for hours and raised slogans against the government. They later visited her residence to meet her family members.

A local SP leader was reported to have alleged: Chinmayanand gets pictures clicked with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. He was the union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. This is the reason why BJP is saving him.” 

The Congress has accused the BJP government of helping Chinmayanad in “every way possible”.  

“The Congress demands that the hearing of the rape case against Chinmayanand be taken up in a fast-track court,” said Aradhana Mishra, deputy leader of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, on Sunday. 

She told reporters “The BJP government is helping Swami Chinmayanand in every possible way. It has slapped extortion charges on the woman and arrested her, so as to weaken the case against Chinmayanand.” 

 “This fight will be fought by the party from the streets to the state Assembly. In order to ensure delivery of justice to the woman, the Congress will take out a 180-kilometre-long march from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow on Monday,” she had said, announcing the rally.

On Sunday, a Congress delegation met the family of the jailed Shahjahanpur woman. Her father had written a letter to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi requesting help. The party had decided to launch a ‘padayatra’ from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow on Monday.

In the letter addressed to Priyanka, the woman’s father said, “My daughter is being falsely implicated by the investigation agency due to the political clout of Chinmayanand. I request you to make the police book Chinmayanand for rape.”

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The Shahjahanpur court will hear the law student’s bail plea later today.

Chinmayanand, who was arrested by the SIT on September 20, is undergoing treatment at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences. He has not yet been charged for rape.

A spokesperson of the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit had said on Wednesday that Chinmayanand was not in the party anymore.

Stepping up attack on the BJP, Priyanka Gandhi, in a tweet, said, “The arrest of accused BJP leader was deliberately delayed by the police. Arrested after public pressure. The accused has not even been charged with rape so far. Wah re BJP ka nyay.”

Chinamayanand, booked under IPC sections 354 D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation), was arrested last week. He was reported to have confessed to taking massage from her and expressed shame at the act, but has not admitted to rape. 

Chinmayanand has, however, been charged not with rape but only with molestation, criminal intimidation and sexual exploitation through the use of his authority as law college head. He has been in hospital since Sunday after two days in prison. 

The complainant, a 23-year-old student at a law college Chinmayanand operates from his Shahjahanpur ashram, alleged the monk filmed her bathing in her hostel and blackmailed her into submitting to rape for over a year. She says he threatened to kill her when she decided to resist.

She has been charged with blackmailing the monk with sex videos, allegedly threatening to circulate them if he did not pay up Rs 5 crore. She was last week sent to 14 days judicial custody on charges of extortion. Three of her male college mates too have been arrested on the same charge.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]