Chinmayanand case: Female law student arrested for extortion released

The 23-year-old law student, arrested for allegedly trying to extort ₹5 crore from the BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of sexually exploiting her, was released from the jail here on Wednesday (December 11).

The law student was released a week after securing bail from the Allahabad High Court in the extortion case lodged against her and her three male friends.

“The girl has been handed over to her father after a release order from Chief Judicial Magistrate Omveer reached the jail. She was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on December 4,” Jailor Rajesh Kumar Rai said.

Also read: Law student, who accused Chinmayanand of rape, granted bail

The 23-year-old woman and her three friends were booked on Chinmayanand’s complaint that they had demanded ₹5 crore from him. The former Union minister had alleged that they had threatened to make public some video clips that showed him getting massage from the woman law student, who was later arrested on September 25.

Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur Law College where the woman studied, was arrested under Section 376 C of the IPC and continues to be in judicial custody. A BJP spokesperson had also claimed that Chinmayanand was no longer a member of the BJP after these allegations came up.

The female law student had earlier accused him of sexually assaulting her multiple times and blackmailing her for over a year. The postgraduate law student also claimed that he had filmed her while she was taking a bath and was using the same to blackmail her.

Also read: Swami Chinmayanand no longer a member of BJP, says BJP spokesperson

She alleged that she had been forced to give him massages after being brought by his supporters to meet him, a few times, at gunpoint. During one such occasion, she claimed that she had recorded everything that had happened using a small camera on her spectacles to gather evidence.

She had then posted the video on Facebook to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sent a plea seeking help from Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath without naming Swami Chinmayanand as the person in the video.

However, her father came out with the truth and named Chinmayanand as the person who had sexually assaulted his daughter.

She went missing soon after this episode on August 24, and was found in Rajasthan by the police a week later on August 30. She was produced before the Supreme Court the same day, hours after she was found, for a closed hearing.