A student has levelled sexual harassment allegations against former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: The Supreme Court on Friday took the 23-year-old law student, who is allegedly facing a threat after levelling sexual harassment allegations against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand , under its protection and made arrangements for her stay in Delhi. The court's directive came just hours after the girl, who went missing on August 23, was found in Dausa, Rajasthan, by UP police.

The court decided to house the girl in a hostel after she refused to go back to UP. In a late evening hearing, a bench of Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna passed the order after interacting with the girl.

The bench took cognisance of a plea by a group of women lawyers who expressed apprehension about her safety. She is studying at a college run by Chinmayanand, who was minister of state for home in the Vajpayee government.

The bench directed the girl be provided security by Delhi Police and she would stay at a hostel near the Supreme Court. It also directed that no one will attempt to talk to her, including lawyers, till it interacts with her on Monday.

The SC also directed the Delhi Police commissioner to dispatch a team of policemen to bring her parents to Delhi from Shahjahanpur in UP and allowed her to talk to her parents on phone.

When the matter was taken up earlier in the day at 1 pm, the UP government informed the bench that the girl had been found in Rajasthan and a state police team was taking her to Shahjahanpur.

But the group of lawyers of Shobha Gupta, Sumita Hazarika, Shomona Khanna, Amita Joseph and Pyoli Swatija, who had written to the CJI on the issue, insisted the judges interact with the girl to find out the circumstance in which she went missing.

The bench then asked the UP government to produce the girl in the SC after the state informed that the police team and the girl were in Fatehpuri Sikri and it would take 2-3 hours to reach Delhi.

The bench deferred the hearing and waited for six hours when the girl was produced before the judges in chamber around 7 pm. The judges interacted with the girl for around half-an-hour and then reassembled in the court to pass its order.

Referring to their interaction with the girl, the bench said she did not want to go back to UP till she talked to her parents and she would decide her future course of action only after that.

"We have spoken to 'Miss A in-camera. She was very responsive to the questions which we asked. She was able to understand English very well but gave most of the answers in Hindi. She stated that prior to Raksha Bandhan, she left Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, along with her three college mates who are also their family friends, in order to protect herself. She has stated that she does not intend to go back to Uttar Pradesh for the present till she meets her parents in Delhi and talk to them. She has further stated that after meeting her parents and talking to them she will take a decision on her future course of action. 'Miss A' wants to stay back in Delhi for the time being till she meets her parents and talk to them," the bench said in its order.

"We make it clear that 'Miss A' shall not meet any other person except her parents till she is brought before this court on the next date of hearing for interaction in-camera," it added.

The girl, who was pursuing a post-graduate degree in law, disappeared on August 23 and uploaded her video on her Facebook account, complaining of harassment. On the same day, the woman's mother went to her hostel in Shahjahanpur, but she was untraceable and her phones were switched off. Later, her father in a written complaint to SP Shahjahanpur said, his daughter alleged Chinmayanand and his aides had sexually harassed her and other hostel inmates.

