'Went To Jaipur To Protect Myself', LLM Student, Who Accused Swami Chinmayanand Of Sexual Harassment, Tells SC [Read Order]

The LLM student, who was traced by Uttar Pradesh police from Jaipur today after she had gone missing following her sexual harassment allegations against Swami Chinmayanand, told the Supreme Court that she wished to remain in New Delhi.

The bench of Justices Banumathi and R S Bopanna, in a special sitting held on Friday night after a closed interaction with the woman in chambers, informed that she had expressed the wish to remain in Delhi and to meet her parents from UP here.

She will decide on the future course of action after meeting her parents.

Taking note of her wish, the bench directed the registry to make arrangements for her to stay at All India Women's Conference for 4 days. Delhi police has been directed too arrange for her parents to meet her comfortably.

No one, including her lawyers, should meet or interact with her before she meets her parents, added the Court.

The bench, referring to her as Ms A, said " We have spoken to the girl , she was responsive to the questions.She was able to understand in English, answered most questions in Hindi.  She left Shahjahanpur with three college mates who were also their family friends to protect herself."

The Court will take up the matter for further consideration on September 2.

This development has taken place in the suo moto proceedings initiated by the Apex Court based on the representation by a team of lawyers led by Advocate Shobha Gupta for action on the news of the student going missing after making allegations against Swami Chinamyanand, a senior BJP leader and former Union Minister.

When the case was taken up at noon, the standing counsel for UP Government told the Court that the student was found staying with her friend at Jaipur and was being taken to her parent's at Shajahanpur.

Expressing concerns about the safety of the woman, Advocate Gupta urged the Court to ask her to be produced before it.

Accordingly, the bench directed her production before Court.

Swami Chinmayanand is the director of Swami Shukdevanand Law College in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where the woman is an LLM candidate. Citing threat to her and her family's life from the politician, the complainant had, on Friday last week, posted a live video on Facebook, alleging that Chinmayanand had "destroyed the lives of several girls".

She had sought help from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. "A big leader of the saint society, who has destroyed the lives of several girls, has been threatening me with life. I have all the evidences against him. I request Modi ji and Yogi ji to please help me", she disclosed.

"When any girl tries to take an action against him, he blatantly threatens them with murder, claiming he has links with all forces of law", she added.

However, three days after the video got viral, the girl went missing. Her phone was switched off and her hostel room locked, since Saturday. Her father has alleged that this was not a case of missing persons but rather of kidnapping and he filed a written complaint against Chinmayanand.

However, no case has been registered against Swami Chinmayanand by the police so far and no action has been taken on the written complaint, the father reported. On being asked, S. Chinappa, SSP at Shahjahanpur, said he didn't know anything about the viral video.

The girl's mother was reported saying that she had asked her daughter why her phone remained switched off so frequently. In response the girl said 'if my phone goes off for a longer duration then understand that I am in trouble. My phone will go off only when it is not in my hands'.