Shahjahanpur: Former Union Minister and BJP leader Chinmayanand, facing rape charges from a postgraduate student, is facing fresh trouble with the victim handing over a pen drive containing 43 video clips to the Special Investigation Team. The girl, her new statement, called Chinmayanand a 'blackmailer'.
She said she first filmed her while she was bathing with the help of his trustworthy aide and then started sexually exploiting her using that video.
According to sources, the victim has handed over several videos of her's including the one in which she is taking a bath that allegedly was later used by the accused to exploit her.
Sources said the SIT has handed over the videos and other evidence to the forensic team to verify its genuinity before the monitoring bench of the High Court on September 23.
The woman has alleged that she was raped and "physically exploited" for a year by the BJP leader. Chinmayanand's lawyer has, however, alleged an extortion attempt.
The woman first levelled harassment charges against the BJP leader in a video clip uploaded on social media. She was then missing for several days before an Uttar Pradesh police team traced her in Rajasthan and produced her before the Supreme Court.
However, the victim and her family who were showing full faith in the SIT probe have now changed their stance. Talking to the local media, they said that most of the evidence they handed over to the SIT against Chinmayanand has been tampered with or destroyed. However, the victim and her family did not have any satisfactory answer about where they got this information.
A question also arises why the SIT is disclosing its progress in the case to the victim's family before turning up in front of the HC bench.
However, from Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police Om Prakash Singh to state police spokesperson, and Inspector General of Police Naveen Arora, who is also leading the SIT, no one is ready to verify the claims made by the victim.
The special investigation team questioned the student on Friday and collected evidence from Chinmayanand's bedroom here, sources said on Saturday.
The SIT, formed on the orders of the Supreme Court, had brought the woman to Chinmayanand's home on Friday morning where they continued the probe for around five hours, the sources said.
The special team has called the student's mother for questioning on Saturday, they said.
Chinmayanand, whose organisation runs several colleges, was questioned for about seven hours at the police lines here on Thursday night and his bedroom at Divya Dham residence was sealed, they said.
A team of forensic experts was also present at the residence.
The woman alleged that important evidence has been removed from Chinmayanand's bedroom and it now wears a new look.
"The paint and other things have been changed and it now has a new look. Important evidence has been removed from there but two oil bowls, used during massage, were found by the SIT," she said, adding that a towel, toothpaste and soap used by the BJP leader was sealed and taken away by the forensic team.
The woman said she told the probe team about a young BA-LLB student who was also being tortured and had confided in her about her harassment.
The postgraduate student said she has also given her statement about the FIR lodged in New Delhi on September 5.
Recounting her ordeal, she said that after she took admission in LLM, Chinmayanand's men called her to his home and left her in a room on the upper floor where the former minister showed her a video of her having a bath, after which her physical exploitation began.
The woman, however, said that this video was not found by the probe agency in the bedroom and claimed that it could have been kept in Chinmayanand's Haridwar ashram.
Chinmayanand's Counsel Om Singh refuted argued that giving massage was not a crime and people go to spa for it.
"Besides, the video does not show anything being done under pressure," Singh.
Sources said the BJP leader has been asked by the SIT not to leave Shahjahanpur till the completion of the probe and policemen in large numbers have been deployed in and around his residence.
The college where the woman studied was closed since Friday and will now open on Monday, the sources said.
