The Patiala House Court on Friday has reserved its order on the applications filed by Swami Chaitanyanand Saraswati, accused of sexually exploiting students at a management institute in Delhi.
The court will pronounce its order on October 14.
Chaitanyanand is currently lodged in Tihar Jail and had filed three separate applications seeking access to basic amenities such as food, medicines, religious books, the case diary, and a copy of the seizure memo.
During the hearing, the Delhi Police informed the court that a fresh charge under Section 232 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) — pertaining to threatening witnesses, has been added to the case against Chaitanyanand.
Three women associated with this management institute were arrested including Associate Dean Shweta Sharma, Executive Director Bhavana Kapil, and Senior Faculty Kajal. They have been accused of threatening complainants and destroying crucial evidence.
Investigations have unearthed obscene chat records of Swami Chaitanyanand, where he allegedly addressed women as “baby doll.”
Several fake photographs, including morphed images with global leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former US President Barack Obama were also seized.
The police discovered that Chaitanyanand had stayed with students at a guesthouse in Almora, Uttarakhand. His phone contained digital evidence, including a WhatsApp group where he made objectionable comments.
A sex toy and five pornographic CDs were recovered from his room during searches. The FIR against him includes Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provisions — Sections 75(2) (sexual harassment), 79 (insult the modesty of a woman), 232 (false evidence), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation).
While dismissing the anticipatory bail plea on September 26, Judge Hardeep Kaur of the Patiala House Courts said the nature of the accusations and gravity of offences ‘warrants custodial interrogation.’
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
