LUCKNOW: In fresh trouble for controversial godman and former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, his residence on the premises of his Mumukshu Ashram in Shahjahanpur was sealed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the wee hours of Friday.
The move followed a 7-hour grilling session in connection with the harassment and sexual abuse case filed against him by a law student, on Thursday night.
The postgraduate student has alleged that she was raped and "physically exploited" for a year by the BJP leader, whose organisation runs several colleges.
Amid heavy security deployment, the SIT raided Chinmayanand’s residence — Divya Dham — on Friday morning and sealed all the rooms, including his bedroom where the viral video, purportedly showing the Swami in the middle of a massage session, was shot. The probe team kept him in house arrest and ordered him not to leave town without permission till the probe was over.
In a letter to the SIT on Wednesday, the law student, 23, alleged that vital evidence were removed from her hostel room by Chinmayanand’s aides before it was sealed by the police on August 29. Her father had also alleged that the godman’s followers removed a pair of spectacles fitted with a camera from the room, thereby implying that it contained evidence against the BJP leader.
The SIT, set up on the order of Supreme Court and headed by IG Naveen Arora, is supposed to submit its report to the High Court by September 23.
The student was brought to the ashram by the SIT at 12 pm on Friday. A forensic team accompanied the SIT for collection of evidence.