UP: Congress to hold 'padyatra' demanding justice for Shahjahanpur rape victim

The Congress' Uttar Pradesh unit will organise a 180-km long 'Padyatra' from Shahjahanpur to the state capital, demanding justice for the rape victim. The 'padyatra' will begin on September 30.

According to sources, on the instructions of UP Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, the party's state unit is organising the 'padyatra'.

During the padyatra, they will press for booking former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand under rape charges and release of the victim from the jail.

A local court in Shahjahanpur on September 20 sent Chinmayanand to judicial custody for 14 days for sexually assaulting a law student.

He has been charged with an offence not amounting to rape, stalking and criminal intimidation.

The law student, who studied in the college run by Chinmayanand, went missing on August 24 after a video of her alleging that a person from 'Sant Samaj' had threatened to kill her and her parents went viral on the social media.

Later, she testified before a local court that Chinmayanand repeatedly raped her for over a year. She said the accused recorded the incident on the camera and used it to blackmail her.

Chinmayanand had, in turn, filed an extortion case against her and three others.

After she confessed before the special investigating team of having asked for the extortion money to the tune of Rs 5 crore from Chinamayanand, she was arrested and produced before the court, which sent her to 14-days judicial custody, earlier on Wednesday.