Gravity of offence increased multifold due to number of victims: Court while hearing Chaitanyananda’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 multifold because of the number of victims.

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

Saraswati is in judicial custody in a case where 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 multifold 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and a false case had been lodged after the victim girls were threatened and induced that their scholarship would be withdrawn.