The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take suo motu cognisance of the case of a missing law student in Uttar Pradesh, ANI reported. The court agreed to hear the matter on Friday, two days after a group of lawyers approached it, according to Bar and Bench.
The woman disappeared on August 24 soon after posting a video on social media in which she accused several influential people of harassment. Although she did not name anyone, a missing-person complaint filed by her father named Bharatiya Janata Party leader
Chinmayanand, who is the president of her college administration. The Uttar Pradesh Police have booked Chinmayanand on kidnapping charges.
The lawyers who moved the court on Wednesday wrote a letter to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, and also mentioned the matter before the bench headed by Justice NV Ramana. They compared the alleged abduction to the Unnao rape case. “We as a society cannot allow another Unnao case to happen,” the lawyers wrote. “This Honourable Court has been interfering in letter petitions when it comes to protection of human rights.”
The Supreme Court was initially reluctant to entertain the plea, and asked the lawyers to file a petition in an appropriate High Court. However, it later directed them to hand over the letter, assuring them it would look into it.
Also read:
- Missing law student case: ‘Nobody knows what is happening with her,’ says Priyanka Gandhi
- Missing law student case: BJP leader Chinmayanand says he is being framed like Kuldeep Sengar
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