UP woman, missing after accusing top BJP leader of sexual harassment, found

Lucknow: The missing student whose father alleged she was sexually harassed by BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand has been located in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh Police said on Friday.

"In Shahjahanpur episode, the girl has been located by Shahjahanpur police in Rajasthan along with her friend. Necessary legal action is being taken," UP Police said on its official Twitter handle.

The UP police chief said: "We did conduct raids in the Chinmayanand ashram. Our teams spoke to several people in his ashram. Our first focus was to recover her safely," reported NDTV.

The woman, a student at a college run by Chinmayanand's trust, was missing since August 24, a day after she posted a video on social media, alleging that a former Union minister was harassing and threatening to kill her.

The woman's video was widely circulated on social media. Based on her video, her father blamed Chinmayanand, a former union minister who headed the management of the college where the woman studied.

She did not name Chinmayanand in the video, but referred to "a senior leader of the sant community".

Parents of the missing student of SS Law College had filed a missing complaint & blamed college director & BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand on 27 Aug, news agency ANI reported.

The UP government informed the SC that the woman is being escorted to Shahjahanpur with the police team and that they are currently at Fatehpur Sikri.

"We can send written email the authorities and they will re-route with security. She can reach Delhi in 2 and a half hours. The boy along with her will also come with her. Entire security will be re-routed," UP government said, news agency ANI reported.

Earlier, SC had asked UP govt to inform it as to by when the girl can be produced before the court.

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

On Thursday, the Supreme Court (SC) decided to step into the case after lawyers raised concerns that it could turn into the another "Unnao case", where a powerful BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar - expelled only recently from the party - is accused of raping a minor girl from his village in 2017 and conspiring to murder her in a recent car crash.