Chinmayanand case: Is UP SIT working under instructions to frame the law student ?

The way the victim in the Chinmayanand case was arrested by the Special Investigation Team of Uttar Pradesh police has raised many eyebrows. Is this a ploy by the Yogi government to protect the rape accused BJP leader by projecting the girl and her three friends as the main conspirators who tried to fleece the Swami?

A senior official privy to this case said that the SIT has got special ‘directions’ from the government and is working accordingly. Senior officials of the Home Department are in touch with the people heading the SIT, he said.

He did not elaborate on the directions the SIT got from officials of the Home Department but said that way things are unfolding in this case suggest that “every step is being taken under design”. The SIT is hell-bent to prove that if Swami Chinmayanad has committed a crime, then even the girl is no saint.

That’s why the Swami is charged with IPC Section 376C (sexual intercourse by a person in authority), not under IPC 375 (Rape).  The other charges leveled against Swami are Section 354 D(Stalking), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation). However, the girl has been charged under section 385 (Putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 507 (Criminal intimidation)and 201 (giving false information).

“The Swami will try to prove that he is innocent and the girl and her friends lured him into sexual activities and it recorded it and used the same for extortion purpose,” a source said.

Accused’s counsel Om Singh has already said that the video shows no sexual activity. It only shows that girls are giving an oil massage and giving a massage is not a crime. “Besides, the video does not show anything being done under pressure,” he said.

From the onset, the government has tried to save the Swami. First, the arrest of Swami Chinmayanand was delayed even after the victim had given a statement before a magistrate. A statement before a magistrate means investigation agency has full proof evidence against the accused, which could speed up the investigation.  But after that statement, the Swami fell sick. He is now admitted in a hospital and being taken care of by specialist doctors.

The way SIT has carried out the probe also raises a question mark.  The father of the victim was quizzed when he handed over a pen drive containing 43 videos. Even the mother of the victim was called for questioning. She was also taken to SS Law College along with a battery of forensic experts.

Even the family says that attempts are being made to save the Swami. The mother of the victim alleges that important pieces of evidence had been removed from Chinmayanand’s bedroom.“The room now wears a new look. The paint has been changed. This is probably being done to show that videos were not shot in that room,” a family member told this reporter.

The girl student of SS Law college had leveled charges of sexual harassment against Chinmayanand. She also accused Shahjahanpur District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh of pressuring her father and family to withdraw their complaint against the Swami.