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Please don’t send me back, says woman in Chinmayanand case
When the matter came up for hearing in the apex court on Friday at around 1pm, advocate Shobha, appearing for the group of lawyers who had written a letter to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi urging him to take cognisance of the matter, said that the woman was found in Rajasthan along with a friend.
The Supreme Court said on Friday that a 23-year-old law student who was found earlier in the day after going missing in the wake of her allegations of sexual harassment against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Swami Chinmayanand will be kept under security in the national capital.
Former Union minister Chinmayanand was on Tuesday booked for allegedly kidnapping the female law student after she, in a video that went viral on social media, accused “a big leader of the saint society” of threatening her and “destroying the lives of several girls”.
When the matter came up for hearing in the apex court on Friday at around 1pm, advocate Shobha, appearing for the group of lawyers who had written a letter to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi urging him to take cognisance of the matter, said that the woman was found in Rajasthan along with a friend.
The woman, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh’s Shajahanpur, was produced before a bench of justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna later in the day and said she did not wish to go to her home state.
The SC passed an order in the suo moto petition after interacting with the young woman during the late-evening hearing. “She stated she wants to stay in Delhi till she meets her parents in Delhi. After meeting her parents and talking to them, she will take a decision on the future course of action… Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and statement of Ms A, we direct the commissioner of police, Delhi, to send a team to Shahjahanpur to ensure her parents comfortably travel to Delhi to meet Ms A,” justice Banumathi said at the end of the hearing.
The woman, a student of SS Law College in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur, was missing since she posted the video on her Facebook page on August 24. Chinmayanand is chairman of the college. In the video, the woman alleged she had “evidence” that the 72-year-old harassed and threatened to kill her.
On Thursday, the apex court took cognisance over reports of the woman going missing. On Friday, when the court was told that the woman had been found, it directed the UP Police to produce the woman before it even as they were on their way to Sahajahanpur from Rajasthan.
Later, the SC bench, which assembled at 7.35pm to hear the matter, said in an open-court hearing that the woman had left UP with her three college mates in “order to protect herself”. The matter was heard in the apex court thrice during the day. After UP government counsel Garima Prashad informed the court of the woman’s whereabouts, advocate Shobha said the woman should be produced before the court.
Prashad said: “It would take two-and-a-half hours for the team to reach Delhi and if the court desires, the team can be re-routed to come here. Once the court orders, I will send an e-mail to the police to bring her here.” After the court’s order, however, the trip took longer than expected. Justices Banumathi and Bopanna stayed back in the court after working hours to wait for the woman.
The interaction finally took place at 6.35pm in justice Banumathi’s chambers. When the court assembled later at 7.30pm, the judges took note of the concerns expressed by the young woman. The woman told the judges that she had left Shahjahanpur with three family friends to protect herself. The SC said she does not “intend to go back to UP till she meets her parents”.
The SC directed its registry to ensure that her stay at All India Woman Conference in Delhi, a shelter home, is “safe and comfortable”. The matter will be heard next on Monday.
(With inputs from PTI)
