SC directs UP govt to set up SIT to look into Chinmayanand harassment case

The Supreme Court on Monday (September 2) directed the Uttar Pradesh government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an IG-rank officer to look into the charges levelled by a Shahjahanpur female law student, who had gone missing after accusing former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of harassment, and was found in Rajasthan.

The woman was produced on Friday (August 30) before the apex court which had ordered that she should stay in the national capital under police security and had posted the matter for hearing today. After hearing the matter, a bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna also requested the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice to constitute a bench for monitoring the investigation in the two cross FIRs lodged in the matter.

Also read: Chinmayanand case: Missing UP law student found, to be with SC till parents come

It said that the SIT, which will also have an SP-rank officer, will look into the grievances raised by the woman.

The Shahjahanpur police had on August 27 lodged an FIR against Chinmayanand after the student went missing, following her allegation in a video clip that he had been harassing her. She also spoke about the threat to her and her family’s life in the video clip.

Her father had filed a complaint with police accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, a charge refuted by the BJP leader’s lawyer who claimed that it was a “conspiracy” to blackmail him. The woman’s father had alleged that she went missing at the behest of the 72-year-old BJP leader, who heads Mumukshu ashram.

She is a post-graduate student in one of the colleges run by the ashram.