Ex-BJP MP Swami Chinmayanand booked for 'kidnapping' woman
Lucknow, Aug 27 (IBNS): Former BJP MP Swami Chinmayanand has been booked for kidnapping and criminal intimidation after a 23-year-old law student, who had posted a video on social media alleging exploitation by powerful people in the management of her college, went missing on Saturday, media reports said.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has, however, not addressed the allegation of sexual harassment that was made by the woman's father.
Chinmayanand's lawyer has refuted the allegations.
The lawyer alleged that the woman is trying to extort money from the former MP.
The woman, who is a student at the Swami Sukhdevanand Post Graduate College in Shahjahanpur, used to live in the hostel.
The college's website names Swami Chinmayanand as the president of the managing committee.
In the video, the woman could be seen begging to the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for help.
It has been widely circulated over the past three days.
"A big leader of the Sant Samaj who has destroyed the lives of many other girls and also has threatened to kill me... I want to request Yogi ji and Modi ji to help me. He has threatened to kill my family. Only I know how I am living now ....Please help me," the woman says in the video posted on her Facebook page on Aug 24 at 4 pm.
"The Sanyasi, he keeps the police and the DM (District Magistrate) in his pockets. That's what he keeps saying. But I have all the evidence against him," she continued.
In the video, she could be seen sitting in a car.
The woman's father named Chinmayanand in a written complaint to the police on Sunday.
He alleged that he tried to speak with the former BJP MP after watching his daughter's video, but could not.
He said he feared his daughter may have been kidnapped and claimed that after watching the video, he felt that his daughter and other girls in the college had been sexually exploited.
Her father also tried at the relatives' place but she was untraceable.
"I tried to look for her among my relatives too but she is nowhere to be found. These are influential people, it's their government in the state and at the centre too, they can do anything. I expect that Yogi ji and Modi ji will help me," he added.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for Chinmayanand's Shahjahanpur Ashram also filed a police complaint against unknown people on Sunday, just hours after the woman's video went viral.
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