LUCKNOW: In a bid to distance itself from former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand, who was arrested on Friday after being accused of rape and harassment of an LLM student, the BJP’s UP unit claimed that he was no longer a party member.
On Wednesday, the party spoke on Chinmayanand for the first time since he got embroiled in the case in August.
“Chinmayanand isn’t a BJP member anymore,” UP BJP spokesperson Harish Chandra Srivastava confirmed to media persons after the law student who had accused him of rape and harassment, was also arrested on extortion charges by the special team probing the case on Wednesday.
However, the BJP spokesman failed to tell as to when Chinmayanand exited the party.
Meanwhile, another spokesperson Hero Bajpayee claimed that Chinmayanand had not renewed his membership of the BJP so he ceased to be a party member.
A former Union minister, Chinmayanad was arrested on September 20, almost a month after the woman uploaded a video on social media alleging sexual assault and harassment. Initially, the girl had not named Chinmayanand but her father went on to name him in a complaint he submitted to the Shahjahanpur police.
However, after being taken into custody and sent to jail in judicial remand, Chinmayanand had admitted to having taken massages from the complainant and had said that he was ashamed of his conduct. But he did not admit to raping her.