Chinmayanand claims case against me plot to malign Yogi govt, being framed like Sengar

Speaking with the media from his ashram in Haridwar, Chinmayanand claimed innocence and alleged that four youths are involved in the conspiracy against him, and that they are trying to extort from him.

Read | Police say missing woman spotted in Delhi hotel

The conspiracy, he claimed, is part of an attempt to malign the image of the UP government, led by Yogi Adityanath.

“There is a conspiracy to set me up, just like it happened to Kuldeep Sengar,” Chinmayanand alleged.

Sengar, MLA from Bangarmau, in Unnao, is in jail in a rape case and is also accused of orchestrating a road accident, which left the rape victim seriously injured and her two aunts dead.

On Tuesday evening, an FIR was registered at Kotwali police station of Shahjahanpur against Chinmayanand under IPC Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The FIR was registered on the complaint of the woman’s father.

The woman is allegedly missing since Saturday.

On Tuesday, ADG (Bareilly zone) Avinash Chandra had told The Indian Express that 2-3 days ago, the police had found CCTV footage that ostensibly showed the woman entering a Delhi hotel with a youth on Friday.

According to police sources, the woman allegedly called her mother the same day.

Read | Chinmayanand case appears to be repetition of Unnao episode: Priyanka Gandhi

On Wednesday, Shahjahanpur Superintendent of Police, Shivasimpi Channappa, said police are trying to trace the woman and have picked up a suspect for questioning in connection with the alleged extortion text sent to Chinmayanand on WhatsApp on August 22.

An FIR has been registered against an unidentified person in the case on a complaint by Chinmayanand’s lawyer Om Singh. According to the complaint, the message carried a demand for Rs 5 crore and threatened that Chinmayanand’s name will be maligned unless the money was paid.

Channappa told the media: “We have (some) leads against the person who sent the (alleged extortion) text. We are questioning one person and have recovered the SIM card used to make the extortion threat. We have information that the person who owns the number (SIM) sent his WhatsApp code to a girl; she sent the text by logging into WhatsApp with that number. We are investigating.”

UP DGP Om Prakash Singh said the Special Task Force has been assigned to trace the woman.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has issued a notice to UP Police, asking it to expeditiously investigate allegations of harassment levelled by a student against Chinmayanand before she went missing.

Priyanka slams, Yogi adviser hits back

Stating that the Chinmayanand case “appears to be a repetition of the Unnao case” — allegedly involving Sengar — Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted, “There is not a single day in Uttar Pradesh when the state government is successful in assuring women that they are safe and will get justice if something happens to them… The girl who raised her voice is either missing or has been kidnapped…. How long this will go on?”

Countering Priyanka, Mrityunjay Kumar, CM Adityanath’s media adviser tweeted: “Read newspapers, know the truth and stop doing politics in the shadow sympathy. People know everything. You have been unmasked and your true face is in front of everyone.”