india

Updated: Aug 30, 2019 01:44 IST

The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of reports that a woman student has gone missing after accusing former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Swami Chinmayanand, 72, of harassment.

A group of lawyers mentioned the issue in the apex court on Wednesday while urging it to take cognisance of the matter, which would come up for hearing on Friday before a bench of Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna.

“Your lordships, we the undersigned members of the legal fraternity and practising lawyers of this court are extremely disturbed and concerned about the wellbeing of the girl concerned. We as a society cannot allow another ‘Unnao case’ to happen. This court has been interfering in letter petitions when it comes to the protection of human rights,” the lawyers said in a letter.

The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday lodged a First Information Report against Chinmayanand after the student made the allegations against him in a video clip.

The student’s father has filed a police complaint accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her. Chinmayanand’s lawyer has rubbished the charge saying it is a “conspiracy” to blackmail his client.

The father has blamed Chinmayanand for the disappearance of his daughter, who is a post-graduate student at one of the colleges the BJP leader runs in Shahjahanpur.

Shahjahanpur’s senior police superintendent S Chinappa said they have some vital clues and their teams are raiding some places based on CCTV footage and call records. He added they are investigating the student’s disappearance as well as the extortion case Chinmayanand has filed. He said the two cases have a common link without elaborating.

“Some clues have taken us to New Delhi. We will reveal details after the recovery of the girl,’’ he said.

Chinmayanand filed the extortion and blackmailing case after he claimed to have received a message on WhatsApp, demanding Rs 5 crore.

Chinappa said eight teams have been investigating the cases.

Chinmayanand’s lawyer, Om Singh, said there is a deep-rooted conspiracy against his client. “We want safe recovery of the girl as well the arrest of those who sent extortion message to Swamiji [Chinmayanand].”

Chinmayanand could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. His lawyer said he had taken a vow of silence.