After SC directive, SIT formed to probe Chinmayanand case

Acting on the Supreme Court orders, the state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday to probe charges of harassment against former MP Swami Chinmayanand even as police said it couldn’t find the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader at his ashram in Haridwar.

The SIT will be headed by an inspector general (IG) level police officer.

The authorities also ordered security cover for the parents and family of the law student who alleged harassment as well as issued directions to provide admission to the woman and her brother in a law college in the region.

A senior home department official said the SIT had been constituted to probe two cases, one lodged by the woman’s father about her abduction allegedly by Chinmayanand and the other by the BJP leader about him being allegedly blackmailed.

Meanwhile, a local police team did not find Chinmayanand at his ashram in Haridwar on Tuesday.

“A team had gone to Haridwar to probe the charges.... It has returned on Monday as Chinmayanand was not found in his ashram there,” superintendent of police Dinesh Tripathi said.

The father of the woman said when they reached Delhi to meet their daughter, she appeared “frightened” and broke down after meeting her mother.

“We have assured her that the administration and court are with us and no one could harm us. She said that she wanted to return home but due to fear left for Rajasthan. She has all the proof against Chinmayanand and she has kept them in safe place,” he said.

The woman, who is a student at a college run by Chinmayanand’s trust, went missing on August 24, a day after she posted a video on social media alleging that a “senior leader of the seer community” was harassing and threatening to kill her.

She did not name Chinmayanand in the video.

Chinmayanand has been booked on charges related to abduction for murder and criminal intimidation.