In a shock move that is bound to spawn waves of protest, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday arrested the woman law student who has accused BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand with sexual misconduct and harassment — in several reports she has described in graphic detail how the swami had been raping her for over a year and had subjected her to threats and humiliation.

What is really strange is that the matter of the law student's anticipatory bail hearing was to be heard by the Allahabad High Court on Thursday, but the SIT did not wait for the court's ruling, as certain phone calls traced revealed that the victim was planning to escape.

The woman was arrested from her home in Shahjahanpur and taken to the Kotwali police station. She was then taken for medical examination and would later be produced in court. The woman was earlier on Tuesday taken into custody but later released by the SIT after the court of Additional District Judge (ADJ) first, granted a stay on her arrest.

The woman and three other boys, who were arrested earlier, had allegedly made extortion calls to Chinmayanand asking him to pay Rs 5 crore or else they would make public his intimate videos.

Chinmayanand's lawyers had earlier lodged a complaint in this regard.