india

Updated: Sep 23, 2019 16:23 IST

The Allahabad High Court on Monday asked the SIT team to file a progress report in the investigation of the alleged sexual harassment case against Chinmayanand by a law student of Shahjahanpur.

The Court also refused to grant any relief to the law student who had sought a stay on her arrest in the FIR filed against her by Chinmayanand as the bench was nominated, only to monitor investigation of the case.

The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance in the matter of the missing girl and had directed the High Court to monitor the investigation of the case. After which, the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court nominated the case to the bench of Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice Manju Rani Chauhan.

On Monday, the victim was also present in the court room at the time of hearing.

The victim had filed an application seeking stay of her arrest but the court refused to grant any relief and said, “If the victim wants any relief in this regard she may file a fresh petition before the appropriate bench. This bench was nominated in this case only for monitoring the investigation in the matter.”

The second prayer made by the victim before the court was that her statement under Section 164 CrPC made before the magistrate was not proper and she may be permitted to record her rectified/fresh statement, but the court did not accept this prayer too.

The court was of the view that in the application for the fresh statement u/s 164 there was no allegation against the concerned magistrate nor has any provision been shown for recording rectified statement of the victim.

The only allegation made was that her signature was not obtained on each page of her statement and further that a lady was present while her statement was being recorded.

The Court on this said that the lady was present in the chamber so that the victim may feel comfortable and secure during the recording of her statement.

Earlier, the SIT filed the case FIR as well as summary of the progress report in a sealed cover before the court. The SIT further informed the court that adequate security has been provided to the victim and her family members.

After going through the summary of the progress report the court found that investigation is going on in a proper way and further even the victim has not made any allegation in her application regarding any irregularities in the investigation by the SIT.

The court fixed October 22, 2019 as the next date of hearing and directed SIT to submit further progress report in the investigation of the case.

On September 2, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the sexual harassment allegations made by a law student against senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand.

The Allahabad High Court was directed to monitor the investigation. Further directions to ensure the security of the woman were also issued by the Supreme Court.