Also apprising the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, the apex court advised them to constitute a bench to monitor the investigation. (File Photo)The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an IG-rank officer to look into the allegations of Shahjahanpur law student who was traced to Rajasthan after missing for six days.
The 23-year-old woman was reported missing a week ago from Shahjahanpur, and her father had accused former BJP MP Swami Chinmayanand, head of the law college management, of harassing her and other students. Acting on his complaint, police had booked Chinmayanand on charges of abduction and intimidation — charges he denied.
The Supreme Court also asked the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to constitute a bench to monitor the investigation in the two cross FIRs lodged in the matter. Chinmayanand’s lawyer Om Singh has lodged a cross FIR, alleging an extortion bid.
The bench also asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee to ensure that the woman gets admission in a different college.
Case of law student who alleged harassment by college management in Uttar Pradesh: SC asks UP to constitute special team headed by an Inspector General of Police & assisted by SP level officer to look into the grievances raised by the girl @IndianExpress
— Ananthakrishnan G (@axidentaljourno) September 2, 2019
The bench had taken suo motu cognizance of the matter after a group of women lawyers brought the matter to its notice a day earlier.
On Friday evening, Justice R Banumathi and A S Bopanna directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to send a team to fetch her parents and arrange their meeting. The judges asked authorities of the short-stay home to allow her to use the landline phone to speak to her parents but barred her from meeting anyone else till the court met her on Monday.
The 23-year-old law student went missing after uploading a video on facebook blaming an ‘influential sant-politician’ for allegedly harassing and destroying the lives of many girls in her college, from Rajasthan.
However, the college authorities have claimed that she had been absent since the beginning of the semester on August 5.
The college is barely 3 km from the woman’s residence and her father claimed that she chose to live in the hostel as she had taken up a job at the college to help with the e-library after her classes and was also taking coaching sessions.
On his part, Chinmayanand claimed that his name was being maligned as part of a conspiracy, and likened the case to that of Uttar Pradesh legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, an accused in a case of rape who was recently expelled by the BJP. “There is a conspiracy to set me up, just like it happened to Kuldeep Sengar,” Chinmayanand alleged.
