Law Student Who Accused Chinmayanand Of Rape Taken Into Custody By SIT In Extortion Case For Questioning [Updated]

The SIT had earlier alleged that the law student's call detail records indicated that she and her friends had exchanged over 4,300 calls this year, most of those being exchanged in August, proximate to the time when the alleged extortion call was made.

The arrest has been made a day after the bench of Justices Manoj Mishra and Manju Rani Chauhan of the Allahabad High Court, which is monitoring the probe in the rape case against Chinmayanand, refused to stay her arrest in the extortion case filed by Chinmayanand.  The bench stated that it was confined to monitor the SIT probe only and "If the victim wants any relief in this regard, she may file a fresh petition before an appropriate Bench". The court then accepted the SIT's report for the investigation conducted so far, and asked it to submit the next report on October 22.

The pre-arrest bail application was filed by the girl after the SIT booked her and arrested three of her friends on a complaint made by Chinmayanand that they had demanded Rs. 5 crore from him and threatened him with the release of objectionable videos.

The bail application of the three arrestees in the extortion case was rejected by the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Shahjahanpur yesterday with directions to approach the competent court.

In connection to the rape allegations, Chinmayanand was arrested last Friday and was sent to 14 days' judicial custody. Thereafter, he filed a bail application in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate at Shahjahanpur, which was rejected on Monday. The CJM said that the bail application should be moved in the Sessions court.

The SIT, headed by Naveen Arora, Inspector General of Grievances, was constituted by the Supreme Court to investigate into the rape allegations. The bench of Justices R. Banumathi and A. S. Bopanna had taken suo moto cognizance of the matter when the girl went missing from her college hostel after the video leveling those allegations surfaced online. Soon after she was traced in Jaipur, the bench directed to transfer the complainant to another college for pursuing her degree and refused to meet her again. The matter was disposed of with a clarification that the proceedings were only to ensure her safety and that her education was not hampered, and she could make further submissions before the SIT.