The woman law student who went missing shortly after accusing BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment in a video was traced in Rajasthan’s Jaipur on Friday, 30 August.
She then appeared before a bench of Supreme Court judges who said she didn’t want to return to her home state, Uttar Pradesh, before meeting her parents in Delhi.
The bench said the girl will be kept in the national capital under full security.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT HEARING
The apex court, which directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to produce the woman before it when they were on way to Shahjahanpur from Rajasthan, had an "in-camera" interaction with her.
Later, a bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna, which assembled at 7:35 pm to hear the matter, said in open court hearing that the woman had left Uttar Pradesh with her three college mates in "order to protect herself".
The apex court said that she does not “intend to go back to UP till she meets her parents in Delhi” and it is concerned about the safety and security of the woman.
It directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to depute a police team to safely bring her parents from Shahjahanpur to Delhi by Saturday "at the earliest".
The bench, however, made it clear that it would not permit the lawyers and anyone else other than her parents to meet her at this stage.
The top court directed its registry to ensure that her stay at All India Women's Conference in Delhi, a shelter home which is used by the Delhi Legal Services Authority for stay of such victims, is "safe and comfortable".
“We have spoken to the woman. She was very responsive to the questions. She was able to understand English but she answered most of the questions in Hindi. She has stated that she had left Shahjahanpur along with her three college mates, who are also her family friends, in order to protect herself,” the bench noted in its order.
“She has stated that she do not intend to go back to UP unless she meet her parents in Delhi and talk to them. She said that after meeting and talking to her parents, she will take decision on her future course of action.”The SC bench said
The bench further said that the shelter home where she would stay would provide landline phone to enable her to talk to her parents.
Advocate Shobha, who was appointed as an amicus curiae, said that she had talked to her parents and they want to have a conversation with their daughter.
WHEN HAD THE GIRL GONE MISSING AND WHY?
The woman, a student at a college run by Chinmayanand's trust, had been missing since 24 August, a day after she posted a video on social media, alleging that the former Union minister was harassing and threatening to kill her.
The police had on Wednesday, 28 August, released posters of the missing student, whose father has alleged the role of BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.
The politician, who faced similar accusations in 2011 and was booked for raping a woman who stayed at his ashram, disputed the charge.
The Uttar Pradesh Police, in a tweet on Friday, announced that the girl, along with her friends, was located in Rajasthan by Shahjahanpur Police .
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