New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed Monday the Uttar Pradesh government to set up special investigating team (SIT) headed by an IG-rank officer to look into the charges levelled by a Shahjahanpur woman law student, who had gone missing after accusing former Union Minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of harassment. She was later found a couple of days back, Rajasthan.
The woman was produced Friday before the apex court which had ordered that she should stay in the national capital under police security and had posted the matter for hearing Monday.
After hearing the matter, a bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna also requested the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice to constitute a bench for monitoring the investigation in the two cross FIRs lodged in the matter.
It also said the SIT team will also have SP-rank officer and look into the grievances raised by the woman.
The Shahjahanpur police had August 27 lodged an FIR against Chinmayanand after the student went missing following her allegation in a video clip that he had been harassing her. She also spoke about threat to her and her family’s life in the video clip.
The girl’s father father had filed a complaint with police accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, a charge refuted by the BJP leader’s lawyer who claimed it was a ‘conspiracy’ to blackmail him.
The woman’s father had alleged that she went missing at the behest of the 72-year-old BJP leader, who heads Mumukshu ashram. She is a post-graduate student in one of the colleges run by the ashram.
PTI