Chinmayanand Case: Law Student's Family Accuses SIT Of Torture

The parents of the law student, who accused former BJP leader Chinmayanand of sexual exploitation in August this year,  have filed a 15-page affidavit before the Allahabad High Court alleging that the Special Investigation Team of UP Police has harassed them. The family has also expressed in the complaint that they do not have faith in the investigation team.

The brother of the rape survivor filed the affidavit in which he mentioned that the SIT is physically abusing them and mentally torturing them by trying to frame them in false cases. The members of the family including the brother, mother and father of the survivor went into hiding after alleging that the SIT harassed them when they met then at their office on November 1.

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All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) state president Madhu Garg met with the family and told the local media that they are extremely scared and demand CRPF security since they don't trust the police anymore. A delegation of Uttar Pradesh's women's organisations is planning to meet UP Governor Anandiben Patel and present a demand charter to her which would include the family's demands, the addition of Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with rape in the FIR and charge sheet. They will also demand the removal of Chinmayanand from the position of the trustee from the management of a large number of educational institutions.

In their conversation with Garg, the family told her that the SIT called them to their camp office at the Shahjahanpur Police Lines on November 1 where they pressurized them to accept that the entire family was a party to the extortion accusation put against the student by Chinmayanand. When they denied, they alleged that the SIT verbally abused them and threatened them of imprisonment.

A day after that, the mother of the survivor filed a written complaint to the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and the Chief Justice Allahabad High Court in which she accused SIT head Inspector General Naveen Arora and other members of torture.

She wrote that SIT member Sharmila Sharma hit her head on the table and slapped her several times to make her forcefully accept that her whole family is part of the extortion case. She also claimed that Arora also threatened that their entire family including the mother, father, son and the 10-year-old daughter will be sent to jail and that their rape survivor daughter would "rot in jail" as he would personally take care of the fact that she doesn't get bail.

"He repeatedly asked my husband about the glasses (in which the hidden camera taped the evidence against Chinmayanand). He said that its recovery would be shown with your son after which he would spend the rest of his life in jail," the mother said in the letter.

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Both the mother's letter and the son's affidavit include pictures of the swollen face of the mother.

"He repeatedly asked my husband about the glasses (in which the hidden camera taped the evidence against Chinmayanand). He said that its recovery would be shown with your son after which he would spend the rest of his life in jail,"

The SIT on November 6 submitted 20-page charge sheets in the sexual exploitation case filed by the survivor against Chinmayanand and the extortion case filed by Chinmayanand against the survivor and three of her associates to the Shahjahanpur Chief Judicial Magistrate Omvir Singh. It also submitted 79 evidences and told the court that it interrogated 105 people. During the submission, all the accused persons including Chinmayanand, rape survivor, three associates - Sanjay, Sachin and Vikram - were present in the Shahjahanpur court.

On the same day, the bail application of the survivor also came up for a hearing but it was rejected and she was sent back to the jail. The next hearing is slated for November 29.

Picture credit: NDTV