File photo of BJP leader Chinmayanand.
New Delhi:BJP leader Chinmayanand was questioned by the police on Thursday night for seven hours, nearly a fortnight after a law student and her family alleged that he had raped her for over a year.
The interrogation by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team of the Uttar Pradesh police is said to have started a little after 6pm and went on till after 1am, according to News 18 sources.
The police, which has been facing questions over its apparent reluctance taking action against the former union minister, are yet to file a rape case.
The 23 – year-old law student, who studied at a college run by Chinmayanand in Shahjahanpur, has alleged that she was filmed, blackmailed and raped repeatedly by the accused BJP leader for a year.
She alleged that after Chinmayanand facilitated her admission into the college last year, he advised her to move into the hostel and blackmailed her using a video clip of her taking a bath taken from a hidden camera.
The interrogation comes aday after the law student’s father claimed that crucial evidencethat could corroborate their claims had gone missing.
“My daughter had safely kept the evidence against the accused in her hostel room which was later the sealed on court orders. When the Special Investigation Team (SIT) opened the seal on Sept 9, some of the evidence was missing from the room, “he had claimed.
He further said that there are 12 videos that will prove the “murky side” of the saint-turned-politician and that the “police are working overtime to save him since he is a close friend of Yogi Adityanath”.
The woman has said that she had kept evidences of the case in ‘safe places’ . “My daughter had recorded evidence against the accused in hidden cameras fitted in two spectacles. Both are missing. The room was sealed two days after we made a request in this regard. My daughter’s friend has also given evidences in a pen drive to the investigating officers, “he said.
Sources close to the woman have claimed that a video that is now viral on the social media, showing Chinmayanand, 73, in a state of undress and being massaged by a woman, was also shot by the victim through the hidden camera fitted in her spectacles.
The politician allegedly also filmed the rape and used it for blackmail. The woman alleges she was forced to give him massages and often, brought to him by his aides at gunpoint. The alleged assaults continued until in July this year when the victim decided to make videos as proof against Chinmayanand.
Last week, the woman filed a rape complaint in Delhi because she stated that she did not have faith in the UP Police. On the orders of the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh government set up a SIT to investigate the case on September 3.
Meanwhile, Chinmayanand has rejected the allegations and has alleged a political conspiracy to bring him down . His lawyer has claimed that the woman and her friends are out to discredit the politician and want to extort money from him.
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