Evidence' against Chinmayanad missing from student's hostel room: report

New Delhi: The Shahjahanpur law student, who has alleged that the former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand raped her and sexually assaulted her for a year, said on Wednesday that some of the evidence she had collected against him was missing from her hostel room.

This statement comes a day after a video purportedly showing the BJP leader getting a massage from the law student has been leaked and has gone viral on social media.

The video shows an elderly man getting a massage from a girl as he continues to undress. The video was shot by the girl through a spycam fitted in her spectacles, reported The Indian Express.

 “My daughter had filmed Chinmayanand with a camera on a pair of spectacles. She had kept the spectacles in the hostel room before she went missing last month. On Monday, when the hostel room was opened, we found the spectacles missing. I am writing to the SIT to look into this, as evidence in the case has been tampered,” said her father.

The student had claimed that she had evidence against Chinmayanand in her hostel room, which was sealed. On Monday, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to investigate the case, opened the hostel room, in the presence of the student and her father.

On Tuesday, the victim’s father said that a friend of his daughter handed over the pen drive to the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has reportedly questioned the woman for more than 15 hours.

“In my earlier complaint to the police, I had asked them to seal my daughter’s hostel room. The police sealed the room after two days,” he added.

The 23-year-old victim accused of being harassed soon after she shifted to the law college hostel in this week. Chinmayanand is president of the law college’s management committee.

“Chinmayanand had shot an objectionable video of my daughter while she was staying at the college hostel. The video was shot inside the bathroom,” said her father, alleging that Chinmayanand had been blackmailing his daughter on the basis of this video.

“My daughter then decided to collect evidence against Chinmayanand and shot his videos. I was not aware about this… I got to know about it when I met my daughter in Delhi, after she was brought there by police,” he said.

However, Swami Chinmayanand's lawyer Om Singh denied the existence of any such video.

Chinmayanand on Tuesday said that he has “full faith in the judiciary,” his lawyer Om Singh also rejected the woman's allegations, calling it a "new drama".

"On August 24 she made the first video... she didn't say something had happened to her. She alleged he (Chinmayanand) had destroyed lives of many girls and (was) threatening her... when she was not successful in her conspiracy, she created new drama," Om Singh, said. 

The woman went missing on August 24, a day after she posted a video online in which she insinuated the leader had harassed and threatened her. In the video, she sought help from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The woman’s father filed a complaint with the UP police after she went missing. Although she did not name the BJP leader in the initial video, the woman’s father named Chinamayanand in his complaint.

On August 27, Chinmayanand, who has denied the charges, was booked under Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC based on the father’s complaint.

On August 30, she was traced to Rajasthan and was produced before the Supreme Court. In court, she informed judges that she went into hiding to protect herself. The apex court ordered the Special Investigation Team to enquire into her allegations.