Top Court Orders Probe Into Allegations Made By UP Student Against Swami Chinmayanand

The Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to set up a SIT headed by Inspector General-rank officer to look into the allegations made by Shahjahanpur LLM woman against BJP leader and former minister Swami Chinmayanand. The top court said the Allahabad High Court will constitute a bench to monitor the investigation. 

The SC also directed the UP government to transfer her to a different college so that she can pursue her course, clarifying that it's not expressing any opinion on correctness of grievances and apprehensions.

The woman, a student of a college in Shahjahanpur run by Chinmayanand's ashram, had been missing for six days after uploading a video on social media, alleging that "a senior leader of the sant community" was harassing her.

She did not name Chinmayanand, a former Union minister. But in a police complaint, her father accused Chinmayanand of sexually harassing his daughter and alleged that he was the reason behind her disappearance.

The Supreme Court took cognisance of the matter on Thursday after a group of lawyers wrote to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi about it.

The woman was produced on Friday 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 A S 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.

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.