The probe in the sexual allegation case against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand levelled by a law student from Shahjahanpur in UP has suddenly speeded up. The SIT (Special Investigation Team), probing the case following the directions of the Supreme Court, had arrested rape accused Swami Chinmayanand earlier today.
As per reports, the SIT has now arrested the extortionist and the victim’s friend, a man named Sanjay Singh along with two others, who had allegedly sent a WhatsApp message demanding a ransom of Rs 5 crore from Chinamayanand.
The three have been taken to the district hospital for their medical test after which they would be produced in court today.
The Uttar Pradesh police had traced the alleged victim along with Sanjay Singh to Rajasthan and had produced her in Supreme Court on August 31.
The Uttar Pradesh LLM student, who had accused BJP MP and former Union Minister Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, after being produced before the Supreme Court within hours of being traced by police, told the judges in an in-camera interaction that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”
The Uttar Pradesh police had been exploring legal options to arrest Sanjay Singh, the extortionist and victim’s friend who had allegedly sent a WhatsApp message demanding a ransom of Rs 5 crore from Chinamayanand. He was with the girl in Rajasthan, and he was also produced along with the girl in Supreme Court on that day.
Sources in the Uttar Pradesh police had confirmed that the Whatsapp message demanding Rs 5 crore was sent to the BJP leader by Singh, obtaining a QR code by generating a pin on a SIM belonging to someone else. The number used to send the extortion message was 860420**** on August 22 at 12.53 PM.
It is believed that Sanjay Singh had come to know about the video clips which the victim had as a proof against Swami Chinmayanand. He then conspired to use it to blackmail Swami Chinmayanand.
Sanjay Singh initially demanded Rs 5 crores which he later negotiated and settled at Rs 25 lakh. However, while the negotiation took some time, the alleged victim already posted a video on social media alleging that Chinmayanand, the director of her college, is threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence that could land him in trouble. This, in turn, ruined Sanjay Singh’s plan of extracting money from Swami Chinmayanand.
Chinmayanand was accused of rape by a law student in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur. She had accused him of raping and physically exploiting her. The victim had stated that the former MP recorded videos of her while she was in the bath and used them to blackmail and rape her.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident after a group of lawyers had written a letter to the Court urging for the same. When the suo motu case was taken up for hearing today by the Bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna, Advocate Shobha Gupta appearing for the girl, opposed the recording of the fact that a boy was present with the girl and the court agreed to not include his presence in the recorded statement.
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 BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.
In the video posted, the girl alleged that Chinmayanand, the director of her college, is threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence that could land him in trouble. She had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for help. The student, however, went missing three days after the allegations were made and was later found in Rajasthan with her three friends, including Sanjay Singh.
