Shahjahanpur/ Lucknow: The 23-year-old student who accused BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of rape was arrested on Wednesday on charges of extortion and sent to 14-day judicial custody, police said. She was arrested around 9.15 am from her home by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Uttar Pradesh Police amid massive deployment of forces, sources said.
SIT chief Naveen Arora said the student was arrested after “enough” digital and forensic evidence were found and statements of people recorded.
“We have sufficient evidence that Rs 5-crore extortion money was demanded from Chinmayanand. Those arrested said they sent messages to Chinmayanand on directions of the girl in panic as they were not getting money and were upset,” he told reporters here.
Anoop Trivedi, the student’s counsel, said he has moved a bail application, which will be heard later in the day. A local court had on Tuesday admitted an interim bail plea filed by the student and fixed it for hearing on Thursday.
The Shahjahanpur locality where the student lives witnessed heavy deployment of police personnel on Wednesday morning. Roads leading to her residence were blocked from both sides before policemen entered the house to arrest her, sources said. The woman was taken for a medical examination and later, produced before the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vineet Kumar, who sent her to 14 days’ judicial custody, officials said.
SIT chief Arora said that forensic examination of the evidence, including pen drive and mobile phones, revealed that there was no addition, alteration, morphing, modification or editing in the videos.
The mobile location and calls made by the student and others were also verified and a chart was prepared which showed that the four (the law student and the three already arrested) were together and in touch, he said.
On the spectacles used for filming Chinmayanand, Arora said, “It was brought online in March by the girl. The girl said it was in her hostel room, which was opened in presence of a forensic team, principal, the girl and her father, but it was not found. We are yet to recover it.”
The SIT chief said the mobile messages deleted by Chinmayanand could not be retrieved by the FSL and hence, it has been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat.
The three others accused in the extortion case — Sanjay Singh, Sachin Sengar, Vikram, alias Durgesh — were arrested by the SIT on Friday, the day Chinmayanand was arrested.
The woman and the trio have been booked under IPC sections 385 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 201(disappearance of evidences), 35 (criminal act done with a criminal knowledge or intention) and 67 of the Information Technology Act, police said.
The law student’s father and brother alleged that she was arrested even though she did not commit any crime. Her father claimed that a police official was taking “a very soft stand” on the complaint against Chinmayanand.
Chinmayanand not
a party member: BJP
The BJP on Wednesday said former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, accused of rape by a law student of his college, is no longer a member of the party.
“He is not a member of the BJP,” party spokesperson Harishchancdra Srivastava told PTI.
(PTI)
