Source: hindustantimes.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court has decided to take up the case of the Uttar Pradesh law student from Shahjahanpur who went missing after accusing BJP leader\u00a0Swami Chinmayanand Saraswati\u00a0of threats and harassment. The case, taken up by a bench led by Justice R Banumathi on the court\u2019s motion, will be heard on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinmayanand, who has been a three-time MP, is also a former union minister of state for home affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young woman\u2019s family has accused the police of soft-pedaling the probe because of the involvement of the BJP leader. The police had registered the case only after a video posted by the woman on Facebook before she went missing made national headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the widely-circulated video, the woman accused \u201ca big leader of the saint society\u201d of threatening her and \u201cdestroying the lives of several girls\u201d. She didn\u2019t name Chinmayanand in this video. Her father, who filed a police complaint, however, accused the BJP leader who has a sprawling ashram in Shahjahanpur and runs several colleges in the eastern UP town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young woman\u2019s father told NDTV that the police wanted him to change his complaint, triggering comparisons with UP police\u2019s handling of another powerful UP politician Kuldeep Singh Sengar\u2019s case. Sengar, who was facing rape and murder charges, was finally thrown out of the BJP after the Supreme Court got into the picture this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinmayanand has also alluded to the Kuldeep Sengar case, suggesting he too was falsely charged with rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarlier Kuldeep Singh Sengar was implicated in a similar case and now I am being targeted,\u201d Chinmayanand had said before he headed for his ashram in Haridwar over 300 km away. His aides said he had taken a vow of silence, or \u2018maun vrath\u2019 and gone for meditation.<\/p>\n