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The Supreme Court on Wednesday brought the curtains down on its suo petition in the Shahjahanpur case , saying that if the girl has to anything more to say in future, she must tell everything to the Special Investigating Team (SIT).
“We don’t want to meet anyone anymore,” the court said today. Two days back, the apex court had ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a SIT headed by a police officer of the Inspector General rank to probe the charges levelled against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chinmayanand. The court said that the probe will be monitored by the Allahabad High Court. As per the request of her father, the girl and her brother will get admissions in law courses in two different colleges under the aegis of the Bareilly University, the court said.
The court said today that suo motu note was taken only since the girl was missing. “Now that she has been traced, we don’t intend to do much. State has also offered to help transfer of their college for continued studies. We don’t want to expand the scope the this petition now.”
The girl who accused Chinmayanand of sexual harassment was produced before the court after she was traced in Rajasthan on Friday (30 August). The girl told the court that she had fled Shahjahanpur with her three college mates “in order to protect herself”. After the girl went missing, her father lodged a police complaint of kidnapping and criminal intimidation against Chinmayanand. A day prior, on 23 August, the 23-year-old law student had posted a video on social media alleging exploitation by powerful people on the management board of her college, albeit she didn’t name anyone specifically. Her parents have been granted police protection.
The court said that the parents of the girl had expressed concerns over her safety and asked the Additional Solicitor General to check whether the girl and her brother, both in the first year of the same college, can be admitted to another college under Bareilly University.
–India Legal Bureau