Law student who accused Chinmayanand of rape admits to extortion, sent to 14-day judicial custody

The Special investigation team (SIT) probing the Shahjahanpur rape case on Wednesday said that the law student was arrested after she affirmed that she demanded Rs 5 crore as extortion money from Swami Chinmayanand.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vineet Kumar sent her to 14 days judicial custody.

Naveen Arora, heading the SIT, said that during the interrogation, the student accepted that she instigated one of her friends, Sanjay Singh, to send the messages to Chinmayanand demanding extortion money.

Singh, along with two others were arrested earlier this week on charges of extortion, the disappearance of evidence and criminal intimidation, among other sections. They also confessed to have made extortion calls to Chinmayanand.

The law student went missing on August 24 after a video of her alleging that a person from 'Sant Samaj' had threatened to kill her and her parents went viral on the social media. Chinmayanand's team, in turn, filed an extortion case.

"After her disappearance, call detail record (CDR) showed their location to be at one place. They all went from Delhi to Solan in Himachal to Rajasthan," he said.

The student, who studied in the college run by Chinmayanand, had later testified before a local court that she was repeatedly raped by the BJP leader for over a year. She said that the accused recorded the incident on the camera and used it to blackmail her.

Chinmayanand, who was the minister of state for home in the Vajpayee government, is in judicial custody in connection with this.