Chinmayanand Case: Cops Issue Poster of Missing Woman with Details

Ex-Union minister accused of harassment. 

(Photo: The Quint) 

Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday, 28 August released posters of the missing student whose father has alleged she was sexually harassed by BJP leader Chinmayanand.

The posters identify the woman, which is banned by law in a case involving sexual assault.

Apart from the woman's name, it carries her photograph, address and the name and phone number of her father. It also carries the mobile numbers of the inspector and the circle officer.

According to PTI, City Superintendent of Police Dinesh Tripathi said, "A number of teams of the district police have been formed to recover the girl, but she is untraceable."

Stressing that this is the normal process followed in such cases, he said posters are issued for the "kidnapped persons". They come from the state capital and are sent to all police stations, the official added, PTI reported.

Spotted At Delhi Hotel

The Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday claimed that the student was spotted at a Delhi hotel. But the girl had already left the hotel by the time a police team reached the hotel, they said, as per PTI.

The post-graduate student has been missing since a video clip surfaced in which she accused “a leader of the sant community” of harassing her.

Her father alleged in a police complaint on Tuesday that she and other girls at a college run by Chinmayanand's ashram were harassed by the BJP leader, who was also a former Union minister.

After the incident came to light, an FIR was lodged against Chinmayanand who has been booked under IPC sections related to kidnapping, criminal intimidation, reported PTI on Tuesday, quoting Shahjahanpur SP S Chanappa.

In an interview to CNN-News 18, Chinmayanand called it a ‘conspiracy’ against him.

“The people who have abducted the girl are the people who have been making extortion calls. This was an attempt to blackmail me by first getting the girl to make a video and then call me asking for money. This is a conspiracy against people who are close to Yogi: Be it Kuldeep Senger from Unnao or Chinmayanand from Shahjahanpur.”

On Friday, 23 August, an LLM student from a college in Shahjahanpur posted a video on Facebook calling out a ‘saint’ for ‘destroying the lives of several girls’. It was a veiled allegation against Swami Chinmayanand who is also the director of her college.

The next day was the last time the girl’s parents heard from her. She had called through an unknown number and spoke in hushed tones, saying she would call back soon. After that, her phone had been switched off.

In the video she had released before she went missing, the girl had urged PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath to help her. She said that she had evidence that could land Chinmayanand in ‘trouble’, and he was threatening her and her family.

‘We Want Our Daughter Back’

When The Quint contacted the girl’s father, he said that they found out about their daughter's video through a newspaper article.

“I read a newspaper article about my daughter’s video and how she has gone missing. We looked everywhere – her friends’ houses, her college, our relatives. She was nowhere to be found. We will file a complaint soon. Her phone number is also switched off. We suspect Swami Chinmayanand is involved in this. See, the BJP is very powerful at the moment. They are in power both in the state and the Center. We urge them to just give our daughter back.”

The girl’s father

Here’s what the girl had said on Facebook:

“I’m (name withheld) from Shahjahanpur and am pursuing LLM from SS College. A big leader of the saint society, who has destroyed the lives of several girls, has been threatening me with life. I have all the evidences against him. 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. Modi ji 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.”

Facebook post

Her father has submitted a written complaint to the cops against Chinmayanand, but no FIR has been filled since then. On top of this, he claims that the cops are pressuring him to convert the complaint into a missing persons report instead.

Accused Files FIR

Swami Chinmayanand, however, has managed to file an FIR stating that he has been getting extortion calls. The Quint accessed his FIR, which quotes a few phone numbers through which he received calls asking him for Rs 5 cro

The girl’s parents are currently trying to access CCTV footage from around the hostel area as no one seems to have seen when the girl left her hostel premises.