How police traced student who accused BJP leader of harassment
What's the story
It took Uttar Pradesh police seven days to find the 23-year-old law student who went missing after leveling harassment allegations on BJP leader and former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand. The woman was found in Rajasthan on Friday morning and was produced at the Supreme Court in the evening. But how did the girl from Shahjahanpur reach Rajasthan? Here's what happened.
Context
First, a bit about the case
On Friday last week, a video surfaced on social media. A woman, who was pursuing LLM from SS College, accused a "big leader" of saint society of harassing her and threatening to kill her parents. A day later, she went missing. Her worried father filed a complaint against Chinmayanand, the director of the college. But, he was named in FIR only after media outrage.
Finding her
She was spotted in Delhi, recovered from Rajasthan
Courtesy the pressure which media put on UP police, they swung to action forming seven teams to look for the woman. On August 24, she was spotted in a hotel in Dwarka (Delhi), but before police could reach her, she left. Subsequently, she was found from a hotel near Mehandipur Balaji temple in Dausa. Apparently, an ATM transaction helped police find her.
Details
Police contacted a cab driver to trace woman
Revealing details of the operation, Bareilly Deputy Inspector General of police Rajesh Kumar Pandey told TOI that the woman stopped using her phone after she was seen in Dwarka. "We got in touch with the cab driver, whose phone they (her friend identified as Sanjay Singh and the woman) had used to contact two persons who were providing them support," he said.
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Police kept a close watch on aforementioned people
"We started following both the persons. On Friday morning, one of them used their debit card to withdraw money from ATM in Dausa. Our team rushed to Dausa and recovered the CCTV footage of the ATM in which the student was also spotted," he added.
SC order
Later in the day, SC bench met her
After she was found, police started the process to bring her to Shahjahanpur. But they had to go to Delhi from Fatehpur Sikri after a bench of Supreme Court, comprising Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna, asked to meet her on Friday itself. The bench assembled at 7:35 PM and was informed that she "fled" with three of her friends to "protect herself".
Order
Woman told SC she wants to stay in Delhi
Notably, the bench interacted with the woman in closed chambers. She told them she doesn't want to go back home but stay in Delhi instead. The SC registry was ordered to facilitate her stay in the national capital for four days. Orders were passed to bring her parents to Delhi too. The matter will be taken up again on September 2, Monday.
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Case will be pursued on SC's orders: Senior police officer
Meanwhile, Chinmayanand has reportedly gone missing from his ashrams. "A special police team has been sent to Chinmayanand's ashrams in Haridwar and Rishikesh to record his statement. The case will be pursued on directions of the Supreme Court," said ADG police (Bareilly zone) Avinash Chandra.