Chinmayanand case: SIT finds law student’s bag from drain

A special investigation team probing the sexual assault case against former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand on Saturday recovered the complainant’s bag, which she said had gone missing from her hostel room, from a drain in Shahjahanpur, officials familiar with the matter said.

The investigators said they found the bag in a drain close to the complainant’s former college and were now looking for the camera-fitted spectacles of the law student, which the woman said she had used to record evidence of sexual exploitation by the 72-year-old former parliamentarian, officials aware of the developments said on the condition of anonymity. The development comes a day after the complainant’s father was interrogated by the SIT in connection with the extortion case filed by Chinmayanand against his daughter.

The case hit the headlines when the 23-year-old complainant went missing on August 24 after posting a video on social media alleging that a “senior leader of the seer community” was harassing and threatening her. She did not name Chinmayanand in the video. But when she went missing, her father blamed Chinmayanand for her disappearance. She was later traced to Rajasthan. The Supreme Court took cognisance of the alleged rape and directed the UP government to form an SIT to probe the matter under the Allahabad high court’s supervision. The woman has alleged Chinmayanand raped and physically exploited her for over a year. Chinmayanand was arrested on September 20 under the Indian Penal Code Section 376-C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority), 354-D (stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

The former MPs lawyer filed a counter case of extortion against the complainant, alleging the student and her three friends made an extortion demand of ~ 5 crore. She was arrested on September 25.