UP law student, who accused Chinmayanand of rape, arrested & sent to jail

The 23-year-old UP law student, who accused politician and former union minister Chinmayanand of sexual assault, has been arrested on the charge of extortion by

The 23-year-old UP law student, who accused politician and former union minister Chinmayanand of sexual assault, has been arrested on the charge of extortion by the special team probing the case, Wednesday. The law student had moved a local court for protection against arrest but did not get any immediate relief. The court has listed the hearing for September 26.

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“The woman was arrested from her residence and taken to hospital for medical examination. She was sent to jail on 14 days of judicial custody,” Inspector General of Police Naveen Arora, who heads the Special Investigation Team, told Hindustan Times.

He said the law student had been booked under sections 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) 507 (criminal intimidation) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information) of the Indian Penal Code.

“The woman also confessed that the female voice in the video in SIT’s possession, in which the accused can be heard talking about the extortion demand, is hers. She has confessed that she was with the other three accused after leaving Shahjahanpur,” he said.

Last week, the special probe team had arrested Chinmayanand on a complaint from the law student who has accused the BJP leader of rape and blackmail. That arrest coincided with the arrest of three more people for attempting to extort money from Chinmayanand. The woman is a co-accused in the case.

SIT chief Naveen Arora had then linked the woman to the three men, pointing out that the law student had been in constant touch with one of the accused, Sanjay Singh. The special team had counted 4,200 phone calls between the two this year.

“During the course of investigation, it was found that the girl was in constant touch with the main accused, Sanjay, and had exchanged over 4,200 calls with him this year. She was also found to be travelling with the accused on many occasions,” Arora said.

The accused reportedly recorded objectionable videos of Chinmayanand and threatened to leak them if he did not pay up ₹5 crore. The videos were allegedly recorded by the woman using a hidden camera attached to a pair of spectacles. “The spectacles with the hidden camera were brought online by the woman and were delivered to her at the college hostel. However, the spectacles were not recovered during the search of her hostel room,” said the SIT chief.

The officer also informed that Chinmayanand had deleted some messages that he had exchanged with the accused. “The mobile phone will be sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory to recover the deleted messages,” said Arora.

On September 23, the woman had asked the Allahabad high court, which had been ordered by the Supreme Court to oversee investigations, for relief in the extortion case lodged against her. But the high court had redirected her to the appropriate court, telling her that it was only meant to monitor the probe and not grant relief.

The case hit national headlines last month when the woman went missing on August 24 after posting a video on social media alleging that a “senior leader of the seer community” was harassing and threatening her. She did not name Chinmayanand in the video. But when she went missing, her father went public to blame Chinmayanand for her disappearance. She was later traced to Rajasthan where she said, she had gone to protect herself.

The woman, who studied at a college run by Chinmayanand’s ashram, also alleged that she was raped and physically exploited by the 72-year-old for over a year.

But Chinmayanand’s lawyer, Om Singh, who had filed a counter case of extortion against her, later told reporters that the law student along with three of her male friends Sachin Sengar, Shivam Singh and Vikram Singh made extortion demand of Rs 5 crore via a text message to Chinamayanand.

The woman had earlier said that the case of extortion against her had been slapped to weaken her case against Chinamyanand. The SIT was formed by the state government on the direction of the Supreme Court.

Swami Chinmayanand not a part of BJP, says party spokesman

The Uttar Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has said that former union minister Swami Chinmyanand is not a part of the BJP. “He is not a part of the BJP,” confirmed party spokesperson Harish Srivastav.

However, party leaders said they weren’t sure if he had been expelled from the BJP.

“There is a possibility that he did not renew his party membership,” said Hero Vajpai, another spokesman of the BJP.

In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had denied a ticket to Chinmayanand. Ever since, he was more active in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of which he is still an office-bearer.