LUCKNOW: A local Shahjahanpur court allowed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the UP police to remand former Union minister Chinmayanand as well as the LLM student, who accused him of rape and harassment, and her three friends on Saturday.
The SIT had applied for their remand in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) on Friday and the court, after hearing the arguments of both sides, had reserved the order for Saturday.
The SIT had moved an application seeking permission to take all the five to Lucknow for a voice test. Chinmayanand, the law student and her three friends are currently in jail.
As per SIT sources, the probe team would take all of them to Lucknow to get their voice samples verified at the Legal Science Laboratory in the state capital.
On Friday, the lawyers of Chinmayanand, the woman and her three friends had opposed the SIT plea seeking remand of their respective clients.
It may be recalled that, after the girl’s accusation, Chinmayanad was booked by the SIT, probing the case on the directives of Supreme Court and under the monitoring of the Allahabad High Court, under Sections 376 (C), (sexual intercourse by person in authority), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.
He was arrested on September 20 and the CJM court had initially remanded him to 14-day judicial custody and he was sent to the district jail. Later on October 3, the court extended the remand of Chinmayanand till October 16.
The alleged victim and her three friends—Sanjay Singh, Sachin Sengar and Vikram Singh — are also in jail in connection with an extortion bid of Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand.
The law student was booked on charges under Sections 385 (Putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 507 (Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 201(Causing disappearance of evidence), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC and Section 67 (A) of IT Act.
She was arrested on September 25, 2019, a day before the hearing on her plea for anticipatory bail was due in the district court. The woman was also sent to jail on 14-day judicial remand the same day.
However, the district and sessions court had rejected the bail plea of both Chinmayanand and the woman on September 30.