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Updated: Nov 06, 2019 17:32 IST

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the twin scandals of rape and extortion involving former minister Swami Chinmayanand filed separate chargesheets-- one against him for alleged sexual harassment of the law student and the second against the law student and her accomplices for attempting to blackmail him—in a UP court on Wednesday.

The chargesheet marks an important landmark in the nearly two-and-a-half- month old case that came to light with the law student’s disappearance on August 24 and the emergence of a video, a day earlier, that sensationally hinted that Chinmayanand was harassing and threatening to kill her.

The probe since then has revealed that the complainant woman along with her accomplices may have attempted to extort Rs 5 crore from the former BJP leader in exchange of the evidence of her alleged sexual exploitation at his hands.

The 4700-page chargesheet names Chinmayanand, the law student, her three friends, Sanjay, Sachin and Vikram along with the chairman of Shahjahanpur district cooperative bank, DPS Rathore and his aid Ajeeth Kumar.

Sanjay Sachin and Vikram were arrested in September for helping the law student blackmail Chinmayanand while Rathore and Singh were booked yesterday for attempting to extort Rs 1.25 crore from the former BJP leader apart from causing the disappearance of evidence. The two have not been arrested yet.

The law student’s counsel, Kulvinder Singh said he had applied to get a copy of the chargesheet.

Chinmayanand, who was arrested on September 20, was booked for alleged sexual intercourse with the law student by taking advantage of his official position, stalking, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.

The law student, who previously studied in a college run by Chinmayanand, had told a local court that she was repeatedly raped by the former BJP leader for over a year. She also alleged that the accused recorded the incident on camera and blackmailed her. It was also revealed that she too had secretly filmed some of her visits to the BJP leader’s house with an intention to blackmail him.

The woman went missing on August 24, a day after she posted a video on social media, alleging that a “senior leader of the saint community” was harassing and threatening to kill her. Following this, the woman’s father lodged a complaint, accusing Chinmayanand of harassing his daughter.