Chinmayanand spends 4th day in hospital

BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, arrested following a law student’s rape accusation, spent his fourth day at a hospital here as doctors monitored his diabetes and urinary problems. Chinmayanand was admitted at the government-run Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences on Monday, when a test cleared him of any cardiac problems.

He had been sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Shahjahanpur court on Friday, following his arrest by a special investigation team (SIT). "Swami Chinmayanand was admitted in Cardiology Department of SGPGI with symptoms of low blood pressure and left-sided chest pain," a hospital bulletin said.

An angiography conducted on him on Monday showed there were no “significant” artery blockages, just calcification. But the hospital Thursday said he is still complaining of severe weakness and urinary problems.

"He is under observation and undergoing further investigations for his diabetic and urinary problems," it said. He was referred to the Lucknow hospital by the Shahjahanpur jail authorities.

Chinmayanand had then displayed symptoms of angina and was admitted at the hospital’s medical intensive care unit under the head of the cardiology department, doctors said. He was arrested under section 376C of the Indian Penal Code, a lesser charge than rape.

It is usually applied in cases where a person abuses his position to "induce or seduce" a woman under his charge to have "sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape". On Wednesday, the 23-year-old woman who studied at a college run by Chinmayanand’s ashram was herself arrested for extortion.

She had been booked along with three men – already arrested – for allegedly trying to extort Rs 5 crore by threatening to make public video clips showing the politician getting massages from her. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday hit out at the Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh over the student’s arrest, questioning if she had got justice.