LUCKNOW: Former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand, 72, was arrested from his ashram in Shahjahanpur by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the harassment and rape charges levelled against him by a law student, on Friday morning.
The SIT booked Chinmayanand under Sections 376 C (sexual intercourse by authority), 342 (Wrongful Confinement), 354 D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC. The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court remanded him to 14-day judicial custody and he was sent to the district jail.
Here's the timeline of the case
Aug 24: The 23-year-old law student of SS Law College run by Mumukshu Ashram of Swami Chinmayanand posts a video on her Facebook wall alleging harassment and sexual abuse by the former Union Minister.
Aug 25: Law student goes missing; her father approaches Shahjahanpur police and gives a complaint of abduction and sexual harassment against Swami Chinmayanand. Chinmayanand’s lawyer OM Singh lodges FIR in extortion case.
Aug 27: District police register FIR against Chinmayanand under sections pertaining to abduction and criminal intimidation.
Aug 30: The law student is found by UP police near Mehandipur Balaji temple in Dausa (Rajasthan) along with her friend Sanjay Singh. Supreme Court takes suo motu notice. Girl is produced in the apex court.
Sept 2: Supreme Court directs UP government to set up SIT headed by IG-rank officer to look into the charges against Swami Chinmayanand levelled by law student. Court urges Allahabad HC Chief Justice to constitute a bench for monitoring the investigation in the two cross FIRs lodged in the matter.
Sept 3: UP DGP sets up SIT under IG Naveen Arora after receiving instructions from UP chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari.
Sept 4: Chinmayanand calls allegations against him a 'conspiracy' to defame his educational institutions.
Sept 5: Law student files a 12-page rape complaint at Lodhi Road police station in Delhi which was later handed over to SIT in UP on September 7.
Sep 10: A video purportedly showing Chinmayanand and a girl in the middle of a massage session goes viral. Same day, a group of men in a car, with the law student in the back seat, talking about an 'extortion message' surfaces.
Sept 14: Law student’s father hands over a pen drive having 43 videos clips of Chinmayanand to SIT.
Sept 16: Complainant records statement in front of Judicial magistrate Geetika Singh. Chinmayanand falls ill, suffers from diarrhoea.
Sept 20: SIT arrests Chinmayanand from his ashram and sends him to jail under 14-days judicial custody.