NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the UP government to produce before it the LLM student who had gone missing on August 23 after accusing an ex-BJP MP of sexual harassment.

The apex court said that the bench will first have a word with the woman in the chamber, in-camera before passing an appropriate order.

The missing Shahjahanpur law student who had gone missing after accusing ex-BJP MP Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment was earlier today traced by Uttar Pradesh Police to Rajasthan.

The politician, who faced similar accusations in 2011 and was booked for raping a woman who stayed at his ashram, disputed the charge.

A group of lawyers who had earlier pleaded Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi with the court to take suo motu cognisance of the missing woman pleaded that the woman should be produced before the bench by the UP government. The group also requested the bench to talk to her in the chamber on how she went missing and whether she is facing any threats.

The apex court immediately ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to apprise the court about the location of the girl within "five minutes".

The apex court was informed by the counsel appearing for the state government that she was found in Rajasthan on Friday and is being taken to Shahjahanpur to meet her parents.

The state counsel said that if the court asks the authority to produce the woman before it on Friday itself, she can be brought within two and a half hours.

After hearing the submissions, the court directed the state government to produce the woman before it during the day.

The law student had disappeared on August 23 and had uploaded a video on her Facebook account complaining about harassment, on August 24. On the same day, the victim’s mother went to her hostel but she was not traceable while her phones were found to be switched off.

Shahjahanpur Superintendent of Police (city) Dinesh Tripathi said teams from the district were sent to different places to locate the LLM student.

The girl is a second-semester student of LLM. The victim’s father, in a written complaint to the SP Shahjahanpur, had said that his daughter has alleged that Chinmayanand and his aides have sexually harassed her and other hostel inmates.

In the 1.27-minute-long video, the girl claimed that the former union minister has ruined the lives of many girls including her. She also claimed to have proof against Swami Chinmayanand but said that the latter is very powerful and even the SP and the DM can’t act against him.

Shahjahanpur police said Chinmayanand has been booked on charges related to abduction for murder and criminal intimidation

UP DGP OP Singh told TOI that the girl has been recovered with a friend from Rajasthan. She is being brought back to Shahjahanpur and later the details of how she reached there will be shared with the media.

(With inputs from PTI)



In Video: UP govt to produce missing Shahjahanpur student, orders the Supreme Court