Chinmayanand case: SIT visits woman’s college, collects all papers

By Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan

Shahjahanpur (UP), Sep 7 (IANS) The Supreme Court-recommended Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing sexual harassment allegations against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand is in Shahjahanpur where on Saturday it visited the places mentioned in the FIR filed by the father of the complainant girl.

The complainant - a law student - and her family are under protection of Delhi Police on the direction of the Supreme Court, state Director General of Police Om Prakash Singh told IANS.

SIT chief Inspector General Navin Arora said the team comprises Bharti Singh, IPS, commandant of the 47th PAC Battalion, Ghaziabad, surveillance specialist Superintendent of Police S. Anand and forensic experts along with 15 other police officers and experts.

Arora said the SIT also spoke to the local SHO and secured details of the FIR, case diary and all information collected in the matter so far.

Arora said the team also went to the co-educational college campus where the woman and her younger brother lived. Arora said the team did not, however, open the room.

A highly-placed police source in the Bareilly Range told IANS that even though Chinmayanand had filed an FIR on August 25 claiming he was being blackmailed, he had not provided any objectionable pictures, audio or videos to the police in support of his claims.

Senior Bareilly range officer Rajesh Kumar Pandey said: "We are responsible for the security of the victim and her family and we have made arrangements for it. Two armed policemen will be with the victim while two others will protect her family at their home and outside. The family will also be guarded 24 hours by another team of four armed policemen."

(Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be contacted at sanjeev.c@ians.in)