The Supreme Court decided on Thursday to take up the case after lawyers raised concerns that it could turn into the another “Unnao case”
Replying to the top court, the state government said the “exact location” of the woman is Fatehpur Sikri and it will take her two and a half hours to reach Delhi.
The Supreme Court decided on Thursday to take up 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.
“Only the police are making the statement but she has not been seen on TV,” said the petitioners, saying they still feared for the woman’s safety.
Chinmayananda’s lawyer called it a “conspiracy”.
The UP police said the woman had been found with a friend and was being taken home.
The woman, a law student, went missing on Saturday after posting a video on Facebook alleging that a “big leader of the Sant Samaj” had “destroyed the lives of many other girls and also has threatened to kill me”. She requested Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help her.
The woman’s video was widely circulated on social media. Based on her video, her father blamed Chinmayanand, a former union minister who heads the management of the college where the woman studies.
The police filed the family’s case only on Tuesday, three days after she went missing, and charged Chinmayanand with kidnapping and criminal intimidation.
His lawyer asserted that the allegations were false and an attempt to extort the politician.
Prasanta Patnaik