Chinmayanand case: SIT searches woman's hostel room for six hours

Shahjahanpur : Members of a special investigation team here on Tuesday searched the hostel room of the student who has accused BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of raping and "physically exploiting" her for a year.

The SIT members, accompanied by forensic experts, spent nearly six hours at the hostel room to collect evidence in connection with her allegations against the former Union minister, college sources said.

The student and her family members accompanied the SIT members during the search, they said.

The team, which reached the hostel around noon, remained in the room till 5.45 pm, examining the postgraduate student's belongings. After the search, the room was locked and sealed.

The SIT, headed by Inspector General Naveen Arora, was set up by the Uttar Pradesh government on a Supreme Court directive.

Amid all this, the man who claimed to be the brother of the victim handed over a pen drive to the SIT on Monday.

The victim and her brother have claimed that if the SIT does a fair probe, this pen drive has some vital evidence against Chinmayanand.

According to the victim's brother, the pen drive contains a video that is enough to expose the "real face" of the BJP leader.

After sustained and long interrogation of the youth by the SIT, it is being said that the victim's family has already expressed doubt over the probe. Now it is up to the police what it can churn out from the pen drive.

The college principal said though the room in which the student was staying was meant for two people, she lived there alone.

Police sources said no rape case was registered till Tuesday evening against Chinmayanand after she lodged a zero FIR in New Delhi.

The woman appeared before the press on Monday, alleging that Chinmayanand had raped her, and also "physically exploited" her for one year.

She had told mediapersons that the Shahjahanpur police was reluctant to register a rape case against the 72-year-old BJP leader. "On Sunday, the SIT quizzed me for about 11 hours. I have told them about the rape.

Even after telling them everything, they have not arrested Chinmayanand yet," she had said.

She had alleged that when her father gave a complaint to police here about her physical exploitation, Shahjahanpur District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh "issued threats", asking her father to file "a missing complaint" instead.