“A big leader of the saint society, who has destroyed the lives of several girls, has been threatening my life,” said a young woman in a video posted on Friday.
The woman is a law student from Swami Shukdevanad Law College in Shahjahanpur, UP. The man she was accusing is Swami Chinmayanand, the college’s director and BJP leader.
She has accused former union minister and BJP leader, Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment and threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence supporting her claims.
The student has since gone missing from her college hostel.
In the short video clip, she can be seen accusing Chinmayanand of sexual harassment and threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence to back her claims.
She can also be seen asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Adityanath for help.
“…I request Modi ji and Yogi ji to please help me. He has even threatened to kill my family. Only I know what I have been going through. Modiji please help me, he is a sanyasi and is threatening that the police, DM and everyone else is on his side and no one can harm him. I request you all for justice,” she said.
At the time of publishing, the police has not registered a new complaint against Chinmayanand. But the student’s father – in a written complaint – said he has been unable to trace his daughter since Saturday.
“My daughter never told me anything personally. She looked worried when she was home on Raksha Bandhan. She has been missing since four days. I have given a written complaint against college director Swami Chinmayanand but no action has been taken yet,” he said.
Her mother told News 18 that she could sense that her daughter was in trouble when she had come home on Raksha bandhan last month.
“I asked her why her phone remained switched off so frequently. She said, ‘if my phone goes off for a longer duration then understand that I am in trouble. My phone will go off only when it is not in my hands.’…She told me she was being sent to Nainital by her college administration,” her mother told News 18.
Meanwhile, the supporters of Chinmayanand have lodged a counter-complaint.
According to them, Chinmayanand received an anonymous call demanding Rs 5 crore from him, India Today reported.
According to News18, Senior Superintendent of Police S. Chinappa said he doesn’t know anything about the viral video.
Last year, Adityanath government had approached the court to withdraw a rape and kidnapping case filed against Chinmayanand.
The FIR against him was lodged on November 30, 2011 on the basis of the complaint of a girl who had spent several years at Chinmayanand’s ashram in Haridwar.
In a letter, the complainant alleged that the former minister raped her and kept her in the ashram against her will.
The case against Swami Chinmayanand was to be withdrawn under Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code which allows a government lawyer to withdraw the case with the consent of the court before judgement is pronounced. The court refused its consent.
When Chinmayanand moved the high court, it stayed his arrest. The case has been pending since then.
He was a Union minister in the third Atal Bihari Vajpayee government (1999- 2004). During that period, he was a member of the Lok Sabha from Jaunpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
Featured image credit: Twitter