A law student from Uttar Pradesh, who went missing after alleging that she was being harassed by BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, has been found in Rajasthan, according to the police.
This comes as the Supreme Court was set to hear the case today as it agreed to take suo motu cognisance of a plea of a group of lawyers requesting initiation of proceedings over the matter to avoid any repeat of the Unnao incident.
The girl went missing soon after accusing BJP leader and former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand, who is the director of the college where she studies, of sexually harassing college students.
The student of the Swami Shukdevanand Law College student in Shahjahanpur had accused the BJP leader of “destroying the lives of several girls” and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for help. She went missing three days after the allegations were made.
The group of lawyers had moved the apex court on Wednesday.
In a letter to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, they requested the court to take suo motu cognizance of the issue. They also mentioned the matter before the Bench headed by Justice NV Ramana.
Initially, the court asked the lawyers to approach the high court but later asked them to submit their letter. It also assured them that it would look into the matter.
The lawyers requested the court to issue a notice to the UP government to trace the girl and provide police protection to her family.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday claimed that the student who went missing was spotted at a Delhi hotel.
The National Commission for Women and Uttar Pradesh Women Commission had earlier expressed concern over the missing of the student.
The UP police had earlier on Tuesday lodged an FIR against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand under IPC Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) based on a complaint by the father of the girl who accused the former minister of state for Home of having sexually harassed his daughter and kidnapping her.
Chinmayanand had claimed that he was being framed in a case of abduction and sexual harassment as part of a conspiracy.
The former minister further said that attempts were being made to malign the image of the Yogi Adityanath government.
“Earlier Kuldeep Singh Sengar was implicated in a similar case and now I am being targeted,” he said.
Chinmayanand is 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. When she got pregnant, Chinmayanand allegedly forced her to have an abortion.