Chinmayanand case: SIT formed to probe cross FIRs
BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand not found in his ashram, police team returns from Haridwar
Lucknow, Sep 3: Acting under Supreme Court's order, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe charges levelled by a Shahjahanpur woman against former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.
The SIT to be headed by an IG-rank police officer will look into the two cross FIRs filed in the high-profile case.
A statement issued by the UP Home Department said, "A decision has been taken by UP Chief Secretary RK Tiwari to constitute an SIT, which would be headed by a IG (Public Grievance) Naveen Arora."
Directions have also been issued by the state government to include policemen with a clean image in the probe panel.
"This SIT will ensure impartial investigation into the two cross FIRs filed in the Shahjahanpur case and also probe the allegations levelled," the statement said.
Instructions have been issued to Divisional Commissioner (Bareilly) and Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Ruhelkhand University, Bareilly, to admit the law student and her brother at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Ruhelkhand University, Bareilly or any affiliated college.
Directions have also been issued to the Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur to provide adequate security to the law student, her parents and other members of her family, it said.
The move by the UP government comes a day after the Supreme Court directed it to set up an SIT, headed by an IG-rank officer, to investigate the charges levelled by the woman.
The apex court had said that an Allahabad High Court bench will monitor the probe.
The law student had gone missing after levelling allegations against Chinmayanand in a video and was later found in Rajasthan by UP police.
The apex court judges said the woman had raised certain grievances against the institution where she studied and her mother and father had some apprehensions about the safety of their children.
The top court said the Delhi Police will accompany her parents to their residence in Shahjahanpur and the woman will continue her stay in the national capital till September 12.
The matter was listed for further hearing on September 5.
The apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the case after a group of lawyers had written a letter to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi urging him to take up the matter.
A local police team, which had gone to former Union minister and BJP leader Chinmayanand's Haridwar ashram to question him in connection with harassment allegations levelled by a woman law student, did not find him there, police said here on Tuesday.
The Shahjahanpur police had on August 27 lodged an FIR against Chinmayanand after the student went missing following her allegation in a video clip that he had been harassing her. She also spoke about threat to her and her family's life in the video clip.
Her father had filed a complaint with police accusing Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, a charge refuted by the BJP leader's lawyer who claimed it was a "conspiracy" to blackmail him.
The woman's father had alleged that she went missing at the behest of the 72-year-old BJP leader, who heads Mumukshu ashram. She is a post-graduate student in one of the colleges run by the ashram.
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
