The law student, who accused the BJP leader Chinmayanand of rape, was arrested on Wednesday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). She was detained for questioning on Tuesday in the extortion case filed by Chinmayanand.
The move of SIT comes just a day before a court is to hear her request for protection from arrest. She was produced before a court and sent to judicial custody for 14 days, till October 7.
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court on Monday turned down the petition of the law student seeking a stay on her arrest in the counter extortion case against her and other three people.
The court observed that the petitioner should file a similar petition in a regular court as this was a special bench monitoring the probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The SIT has earlier arrested three men related to the law student for extortion call to Chinmayanand. The three accused, Sanjay Singh, Vikram alias Brajesh and Sachin Sengar alias Sonu were arrested under the IT Act and for destroying evidence and extortion, said Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh.
Though the police did not clearly state that her name was included in the extortion case, the student was named as fourth person among the accused in the case. She was listed as “Miss A” in a single page press release issued by the SIT.
However, the complainant has refuted the charges against her and added that extortion angle is added to weaken the case.
23-year-old law student of the Swami Shukdevanand Law College student in Shahjahanpur had accused Chinmayanand of blackmail and rape by posting a video message on the social media on August 23. The next day she went missing and was later traced to Rajasthan on August 30. The law student had appeared before the press two weeks back alleging that she was raped and exploited for over a year by the BJP leader. She even threatened to end her life if Chinmayanand was not arrested. She said that it had been over 15 days since she recorded her statement but the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had not yet arrested the accused.She had given a pen drive containing 43 videos to the SIT to support her allegations after the sleuths asked her to submit whatever evidence she had against former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand.
The 73- year-old-BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand was arrested in connection with the alleged sexual harassment on Friday and sent to 14-day judicial custody by a local court in Shahjahanpur.
But Chinmayanand has been in hospital since Sunday just after two days in prison.
But the BJP leader has not been charged with rape but “misusing authority for sexual intercourse” or “sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape” as well as with stalking, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement. During an interrogation by the SIT on Friday, he has admitted to the sexual harassment. He had confessed to having called the law student for “massages”and said that he was ashamed of his act.
Earlier, the Supreme Court, which heard the girl in a closed hearing, had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the allegations made against Swami Chinmayanand.
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, the BJP leader allegedly forced her to have an abortion.