Chinmayananda on 'maun vrat', no questioning by cops

Former union minister and senior BJP leader Swami Chinmayananda, who was accused of being involved in the alleged kidnapping of a law student after she claimed ''sexual exploitation'' by a ''seer'', has been on 'maun vrat' (vow of silence) forcing the police to defer his questioning.

According to the reports, the Swami, who was the president of the managing committee of the Law College, where the student studied, was currently in Haridwar town in Uttarakhand.

''We have been informed that he (Swami) will be on maun vrat till Monday....we will question him once he breaks his vow of silence,'' said a police official in Shahajahanpur, about 175 kilometres from here.

The victim hails from Shahjahanpur. Law College was also situated there.

The law student, who had gone missing last week after posting a video on the social networking sites alleging her ''sexual exploitation'' by a seer, was found at Dausa town in Rajasthan.

She was produced before the supreme court, which, after interacting with the girl, took her in its custody and posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.

Though the student did not take any one's name in the video, her family has accused Chinmayananda of ''sexually exploiting'' her.

The Swami, however, claimed that it was a conspiracy to ''blackmail'' him and said he had received an anonymous phone call demanding rs. five crore extortion.

The police in Shahjahanpur also suspected that there could be a link between the allegation of the student and the extortion call to Chinmayananda.