Gravity of offence increased multi-fold due to number of victims: Delhi court while hearing Chaitanyananda Saraswati’s bail plea

A Delhi court, while hearing the bail plea of self-styled godman Chaitanyananda Saraswati on Monday, observed that the gravity of the offence increased multi-fold because of the number of victims.

Saraswati is in judicial custody in a case, in which he is accused of molesting 17 women students.

Additional Sessions Judge Deepti Devesh, who adjourned the plea to October 27, observed during the proceedings that no grounds were made at the present stage for the grant of statutory bail.

To the defence counsel’s vehement insistence that Saraswati had been implicated in the case, the judge orally observed, “The gravity of the offence increases multi-fold because of the number of victims.”

Earlier, the accused’s counsel said that his client was falsely implicated, and a false case had been lodged after the girls were threatened and induced that their scholarship would be withdrawn.

“You are saying that he (accused) has been implicated. But there are 16 victims. It is possible to induce one, two, possibly even three, but how is it possible to persuade all 16?” the judge said.

Saraswati’s counsel said that all the alleged offences except for BNS Section 232 (threatening any person to give false evidence) were bailable and that the offence, which was added later during the investigation, was punishable with a maximum sentence of three years.

He said that there was no material connecting Saraswati, former chairman of a private management institute here, with the alleged offences and that BNS Section 232 was not made out in the case.

“The allegations are that he put colours on his disciples on Holi, and he had handshakes with them. Please look at the allegations. There are no sexual offences,” the advocate said.

The judge replied, “The statements of victims, all 16 of them. Are they not substantive evidence?” During the proceedings, the advocate for the private management institute told the court that “the lid was blown off” in the present case after receiving an email from a female Indian Air Force group captain about Saraswati’s misdemeanour.

The investigating officer (IO) informed the court that WhatsApp chats of the complainants were not available because of the “disappearing messages” feature being enabled in their mobile phones, and that there were only screenshots of the chats.

“Three women are also involved. They forced the students to delete the chats,” the IO said.

To the court’s question about whether the three women had been arrested, the IO said they were only “bound down”. The court then adjourned the bail plea to October 27 after noting the request by Saraswati’s counsel.

A Delhi Police team last month arrested Saraswati from Agra, where he was staying at a hotel.

According to the FIR, Saraswati allegedly forced female students to visit his quarter late at night, and sent them inappropriate text messages at odd hours. He allegedly kept track of the students’ movements through his phone.