Shahajahanpur rape victim may be charged with extortion

The law student, who has accused former Union minister and senior BJP leader Swami Chinmayananda of ''raping'' her, was likely to be charged with extortion.

The sleuths of the special investigation team (SIT), which is probing the matter, said that they were in possession of a video, that showed the victim and her three acquaintances discussing blackmailing the saffron leader by threatening to make his (seer) ''sex videos'' public.

''They could be heard planning to extort Rs. five crores from Chinmayananda,'' said an SIT member in Shahajahanpur, about 175 kilometres from here, on Friday.

Sources said that the law student could be arrested, once the authenticity of the video was established.

Three others, including a ''friend'' of the victim, were also arrested on charges of trying to extort money from the seer by threatening to make his 'sex videos' public.

The Swami had filed a complaint with the police claiming that he had received an anonymous phone call demanding Rs. five crore extortion. He had also alleged in the complaint that the caller had threatened to release an ''obscene video''.