The Chinmayanand case has taken yet another turn with the law student’s father now claiming that evidence has gone missing from the girl’s hostel room.

“My daughter had safely kept the evidence against the accused in her hostel room which was later sealed on court orders. When the Special Investigation Team (SIT) opened the seal on Sept 9, some of the evidence was missing from the room,” he claimed on Thursday.

Members of a special investigation team had on Tuesday searched the hostel room of the law student in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur.

The SIT members, accompanied by forensic experts, spent over five hours at the hostel to collect evidence in connection with her allegations against the former Union minister.

The student and her family members had accompanied the SIT members during the search. The team, which reached the hostel around noon, remained in the room till past 5 pm, examining the postgraduate student’s belongings. After the search, the room was locked and sealed.

The law student from Uttar Pradesh had accused former minister Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment.

The girl had earlier claimed that she had kept evidence of the case in ‘safe places’.

“My daughter had recorded evidence against the accused in hidden cameras fitted in two spectacles. Both are missing. The room was sealed two days after we made a request in this regard. My daughter’s friend has also given evidence in a pen drive to the investigating officers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the officers in the SIT have refused to comment on the allegations made by the girl’s father.

Sources close to the girl have claimed that the video that is now viral on the social media, showing Chinmayanand, 73, in a state of undress and being massaged by a girl, was shot by the victim through the hidden camera fitted in her spectacles.

“There are 12 such videos that will confirm the murky side of the saint-turned-politician. The police is apparently working overtime to save Chinmayanand who is a friend of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

“Yogi Adityanath had visited Mumukshu Ashram, run by Chinmayanand, in February last year. The police has visited the ashram and but has not even questioned the accused till now,” said a source who did not wish to be identified.

The 23-year-old law student of the Swami Shukdevanand Law College student in Shahjahanpur had appeared before the press on Monday alleging that she was raped and exploited for over a year by the BJP leader.

“Swami Chinmayanand raped me and even exploited me physically for one year,” she alleged before the media, her face covered with a black scarf.

“I have every evidence of the crime… go and open my hostel room,” she added.

The Supreme Court, which heard the girl in a closed hearing, had last week directed the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the allegations made against Swami Chinmayanand.

The Supreme Court took up the matter after a group of lawyers wrote to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The girl student, who went missing after levelling sexual harassment charges against Chinmayanand, was later traced to Rajasthan on August 30.

The UP Police has, meanwhile, lodged an FIR against Chinmayanand under IPC Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) based on a complaint by the father of the girl who accused the former minister of state for Home of having sexually harassed his daughter and kidnapping her.

Chinmayanand is a three-time Lok Sabha MP and was a minister of state in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2011, he was accused of rape by an inmate of his ashram. When she got pregnant, Chinmayanand allegedly forced her to have an abortion.