A 23-year-old law student from Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur, around 200 kilometres from the state capital Lucknow, has accused the politician of kidnapping and rape for more than a year. The girl is studying at a college managed by the former minister.
#BREAKING - Former BJP MP Chinmayanand arrested by Uttar Pradesh SIT in Shahjahanpur rape case. #ChinmayanandArrested pic.twitter.com/x884r3EFyn
— News18 (@CNNnews18) September 20, 2019
Opposition leaders and civil society members have been accusing the ruling party of protecting the strongman as he wasn't even charged with rape for almost a month after the woman filed a police complaint.
A video purportedly showing the BJP leader getting a massage from the law student also surfaced last week. The girl claimed that she was allegedly brought to his room at gunpoint but recorded the video of massage using a spycam.
Later on Monday, the girl approached a court and recorded her statement in detail. The girl claimed that Chinamayanand allegedly filmed her taking a bath and blackmailed her with the video and raped her.
On 2 September, India’s top court ordered an enquiry by a special investigation team and also directed the Allahabad High Court, the top court in Uttar Pradesh, to set up a bench to monitor an investigation against former Junior Minister for Home Affairs Swami Chinmayanand.
Chinmayanand is the second leader of the governing nationalist BJP to be embroiled in recent a sexual exploitation case. A sitting legislator from Uttar Pradesh, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, is already in jail facing similar charges.
