Chinmayanand case: Court summons BJP leaders in extortion case

BAREILLY: The court of the chief judicial magistrate in Shahjahanpur has issued summons to BJP leader DPS Rathore and another party leader Ajit Singh for their involvement in the extortion case registered by Chinmayanand’s lawyer Om Singh. Rathore is the younger brother of JPS Rathore , BJP’s state vice-president.

In its chargesheet, the SIT told the court that the 23-year-old law student and her friends had allegedly attempted to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand while the two BJP leaders had attempted to extort Rs 1.25 crore from the former Union minister with the help of a pen drive that they had snatched from the woman after she was found by Shahjahanpur police in Dausa, Rajasthan .

Both the leaders were charged under sections 385 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC in the chargesheet filed by the SIT on November 6.

The CJM court has now directed the accused leaders to appear before the court on November 19. According to legal experts, there is a possibility that the court may send them in judicial custody as all the other accused in the extortion case are lodged in Shahjahanpur district jail.

The name of BJP leaders came into light after their names were disclosed by the law student in her statement recorded before the magistrate.

Chinmayanand’s lawyer Manendra Singh told TOI, “As standard procedure, summons have been issued by the court and the accused would have to appear before the court on November 19. According to the chargesheet, Rathore had represented himself as a senior official of a renowned investigating agency in order to get the pen drive.”