The sexual allegation case against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand levelled by a law student from Shahjahanpur in UP has been witnessing a new twist with each passing day. In the latest, the law postgraduate student on Monday alleged that the former Union Minister had raped and sexually assaulted her for a year.
She mad these new allegations while addressing the press in Delhi. The woman, who was studying at a law college where Chinmayanand was the director, had gone missing after releasing the video on social media alleging harassment. She was found with her male friend a few days later in Rajasthan. She has now alleged that Chinmayanand exploited many more girls like her, but only she had the courage to come forward and file a complaint.
“Swami Chinmayanand sexually assaulted and physically exploited me 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 SIT probing allegations of harassment on Tuesday visited the ashram and the college run by Chinmayanand where the girl studied. The SIT opened the hostel room of the law student in the presence of her family. The hostel room had been sealed after the case came to light.
Claiming that she had proof, she had asked for her sealed hostel to be opened in front of the media. ‘I will give the proof, including video clips, at an opportune time against the 72-year-old BJP leader’, the woman had said.
The girl had further claimed that Shahjahanpur police was not registering the rape case, because of which she had to approach Delhi Police with a complaint accusing the BJP leader of raping her.
She has allegedly provided 14 videos as evidence to the SIT against Chinmayananad allegedly being massaged by a woman. He allegedly shot these videos through a hidden camera.
Moreover, her family has also provided a pen drive to SIT on Monday. The girl and her brother have claimed that if the SIT does a fair probe the pen drive would help with some vital evidence against Chinmayanand. According to the girl’s brother, the pen drive contains a video that is enough to expose the “real face” of the BJP leader.
The LLM student from the Swami Shukdevanand Law College (SS Law College) in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh had released a video on social media on August 23, levelling allegations of sexual harassment against Chinmayanand. The student, however, went missing three days after the allegations were made. This had raised suspicion that the BJP leader had abducted her and accordingly, the police had registered a case of abduciton against him.
Interestingly, the ‘abduction’ angle in the case was ruled out after the girl herself confessed before the Supreme Court on September 2 that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”
After a week-long hunt, the UP police traced the girl in Rajasthan with one of her friends named Sanjay Singh, who had allegedly made ransom calls to Swami Chinmayanand demanding Rs 5 crore.
After this, SC had ordered the government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the harassment charges levelled by the LLM student against Chinmayanand.
The SC had also requested the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to constitute a Bench to monitor this probe. The SIT will also take note of the FIR and the cross FIR filed in the case.
The girl’s family has been blaming Shahjahanpur police of inaction and alleging the police are treating them as the ‘culprits’ while the actual accused has not even come face to face with the Special Investigation Team yet.
“On Sunday, the SIT quizzed me for about 11 hours. I have told them about the rape. Even after telling them everything, they have not arrested Chinmayanand yet,” she said.
She alleged that when her father filed a complaint to police here about her physical exploitation, Shahjahanpur District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh “issued threats,” asking her father to file “a missing complaint” instead.
Earlier, Swami Chinmayanand had stated that he was being framed in the case as a part of a big conspiracy to malign the Uttar Pradesh government’s reputation.
However, the SIT has summoned Swami Chinmayanand to join the investigation.
