Within 48 hours of the victim threatening to immolate herself, the Special Investigation Team arrested former Union Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand, who has been accused of rape by the law student of Shahjahanpur.
After the arrest, the SIT took Chinmayanand for medical examination and thereafter produced him before Chief Judicial Magistrate Omveer Singh who sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
Later, disclosing the development to the media, the SIT claimed that the accused had confessed of sexual harassment and also said “main sharminda hoon, (I am ashamed)” to apologise for his act.
Swami Chinmayanand, however, has so far not been booked for raping the girl as alleged by her in her statement before the magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The police have booked Chinmayanand under sections 376 (c) (a person in position of fiduciary seducing a woman for sexual intercourse not amounting to rape), 354 D (stalking), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Naveen Arora, who is heading the SIT team, told reporters that during the course of investigation, as they unravelled the case, Chinmayanand admitted to his actions and said, “Mujhse aur kuchh mat puchhiye” (Don’t ask anything more from me).
“He has admitted to almost every allegation levelled against him, including sexual conversations and body massage but not made any comment on rape charges. The circumstantial evidences in the case are also being examined. He (Chinmayanand) said he did not want to say more as he was ashamed of his acts,” said the SIT chief quoting Swami Chinmayanand’s interrogation.
The SIT chief, surprisingly, said that they had taken all precautions about the health of Chinmayanand before arresting him.
According to Arora, the SIT managed to look at Chinmayanand’s call records and found that he had called the girl more than 200 times on her mobile phone. Further, three associates of the girl have also been booked under sections 385, 506 and 201 of IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act for blackmailing the Bharatiya Janata Party leader for extorting Rs 5 crore from him.
The three have also arrested by the SIT and sent to jail on Friday.
Meanwhile, Director General of Police OP Singh in his statement said that the police were acting on the direction of the Supreme Court and had constituted the SIT team.
“After a thorough probe we arrested Swami Chinmayanand from his ashram and he has been sent to jail. There has been no delay in the case. We have also arrested three people over extortion threats to Swami Chinmayanand,” he added.
The law student, who is enrolled in a postgraduate course at one of the colleges run by Chinmayanand’s organisation, had levelled allegations of rape and physically exploitation against the former Union minister. She alleged that her ordeal continued for a year.
The UP Police had set up the SIT to probe the case on the directions of the Supreme Court.
