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Supreme Court Directs UP Police To Produce Law Student Found In Rajasthan

The court said that it would pass appropriate orders only after speaking to the woman.
Apex court in India
Ramesh Lalwani via Getty Images
Apex court in India

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh police to produce the law student, who had gone missing from Shahjahanpur and was found in Rajasthan on Friday.

The woman’s father had alleged that BJP’s Chinmayanand had sexually assaulted her after the girl’s video (where she doesn’t name anyone) asking for help went viral on social media.

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“Find out within five minutes her exact location now. How much time will she take to be present in court,” the Supreme Court was quoted by NDTV as saying.

Prabhati N Mishra, reporting for Live Law tweeted that the police as saying that the girl had reached Fatehpur Sikri and she could be re-routed to Delhi if an order was given.

The Supreme Court in its order states that the bench will re-assemble only after speaking to the girl.

The bench of justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna said it would interact with the woman in-camera and the bench will assemble after that to pass appropriate orders.

The Shahjahanpur police had on Tuesday lodged an FIR against Chinmayanand after the student following her allegation in a video clip that he had been harassing her.

Her father had filed a complaint with the police accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, a charge refuted by his lawyer who claimed it was a “conspiracy” to blackmail him.

Shahjahanpur Superintendent of Police S Chanappa said Chinmayanand had been booked under IPC sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) based on the father’s complaint.

The visibly frightened woman had said in her video,Modiji please, please meri help kariye aap (Modiji please, please help me).”

While she didn’t name the politician, the details she discloses in the video make it clear who she was referring to. After she went missing, her father alleged on Tuesday that Chinmayanand was behind her harassment.

The woman alleged that Chinmayanand has “ruined” her life and that of many other women, and that he has been threatening to kill her and her family.

“That sanyasi has the police and the DM (district magistrate) in his pocket. He threatens everyone and says no one can help me. I have a lot of evidence against him. I request you to get me justice,” the woman said in the video posted on August 24.

Chinmayanand has been a three-time Lok Sabha MP and was a minister of state in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2011, he was accused of rape by an inmate of his ashram.

(with PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.