A BJP leader and his associate have been booked by Uttar Pradesh police in connection with the extortion case against former Union Minister Chinmayanand, who is currently in jail after a 23-year-old law student accused him of rape. The law student has also been jailed after police charged her with extortion, criminal intimidation and “disappearance of evidence”.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of UP Police that is probing both cases identified the BJP leader as DPS Rathore, the younger brother of the vice president of the party’s state unit. Police said Mr Rathore was involved in a conspiracy to blackmail Chinmayanand and was helping the law student extort money.

Police have also claimed Mr Rathore and his associates later tried to strike a separate deal with Chinmayanand for Rs 1.5 crore, after convincing the law student to surrender a copy of the tapes that allegedly show her being sexually assaulted.

DPS Rathore has not yet been arrested, according to police, but his name will be included in a chargesheet in the case; this is to be filed before the court shortly.

On Monday Mr Rathore, who was grilled for 12 hours, gave up a pen drive believed to contain video clips related to the incident. He had also been questioned on Sunday.

A day earlier the SIT recovered a purse belonging to the law student from a drain near an ashram owned by Chinmayanand. Investigators are now looking for the spy camera-fitted spectacles that the student allegedly used to record evidence of sexual exploitation.

Chinmayanand has been booked under section 376C of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which is usually applied in cases where a person abuses his position to “induce or seduce” a woman under his charge to have “sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape”.

A chargesheet in the rape case against Chinmayanand has also been prepared and will be filed separately. The Allahabad High Court will hear his bail plea on Friday.

The law student’s bail plea will be heard on Wednesday.

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