Left Shahjahanpur with 3 college mates to protect myself: Girl who accused Swami Chinmayanand of harassment

The law student who accused former Union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment told the Supreme Court on Friday that she left her home in Shahjhanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to "protect" herself.

During a closed-door interaction with a bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna, he said that the girl said that she left her home along with her "three college mates who are also their family friends" before Raksha Bandhan in order to protect herself.

The court has recorded the girl's statement in its order.

In a video posted, the girl had alleged that Chinmayanand, director of her college, is threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence that could land him in trouble. The girl went missing after the video went viral on August 24 from the hostel of SS Law College.

The court took suo moto cognizance of the issue after a group of lawyers led by advocate Shobha Gupta wrote a letter to the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to take note of the incident, as they don't want another "Unnao case like incident to happen".

The bench, after it was told that the girl was found in Rajasthan and was in her way to Shahjahanpur, ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to produce her before it. The judges interacted with the girl and as per her wish ordered her stay in Delhi till the time she meets her parents.

The girl, a law student from SS Law College in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur had gone missing from her college hostel.