Lucknow:
Hours after being BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand was arrested for allegedly raping a law student, the Special Investigation Team has arrested two cousins and a male friend of the alleged rape victim on charges of trying to extort Rs 5 crore from the former Union minister. The three - Sanjay Singh, Vikram alias Brajesh and Sachin Sengar alias Sonu - have been arrested under the IT Act and for destroying evidence and extortion, said Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh.
They have been produced in court which sent them to judicial remand. The SIT recorded the statements of all the three which also corroborated with the statements of Chinmayanand's staff, who disclosed to the SIT that the three intended to extort money from Chinmayanand and were trying to negotiate with them.
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The SIT had already interrogated Sanjay, a male companion of the alleged rape victim, a law student, in this regard.
"Sanjay Singh, the boy with whom the victim first came to Delhi from Shahjahanpur and then went to Rajasthan, initially struck the deal of Rs 5 crore with Chinmayanand. The second accused, Vikram alias Brajesh, helped them in making pen drives of the videos and upload them on social media and even distributed them to media persons," said Singh.
Chinmayanand had alleged that he was being asked to pay Rs 5 crore by some boys and the matter was linked to the allegations made by the law student.
Meanwhile, the former Union Minister has confessed to all crimes except rape, the SIT revealed on Friday. Earlier, he was sent to judicial custody of 14 days in the morning. News Nation has learnt that except the rape allegations, Chinmayanand has confessed to all crimes. 'I made a mistake,' the BJP leader reportedly said.
"Swami Chinmayanand has admitted to almost every allegation levelled against him, including sexual conversations and body massage. Circumstantial evidences also being examined. He said he doesn't want to say more as he's ashamed of his acts," Naveen Arora, Special Investigation Team Chief was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Earlier in the morning, he was produced before a local court after being was arrested from his ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur. The arrest came following intense grilling of the BJP leader by SIT on Saturday last week. Last week, the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) after the Supreme Court directed to do so to investigate the charges levelled by the woman, who is a postgraduate student at a college run by Chinmayanand's trust.
