Shahjahanpur law student remains untraceable as her father admits their fight is against ‘big’ people

Where has Kalpana (name changed) vanished? It is the fifth days since her mobile went silent on August 23, this 23 year old girl doing LLM from SS Law College in Shahjahanpur, has gone missing after voicing concern over her life and the life of her family and accusing former Union  minister and self-proclaimed Godman Swami Chinmayanand of harassment and “destroying lives of many girls.”

“We are trying to locate the girl. We have got a lead and are working on it,” SSP Shahjahanpur S Chinappa said before hurriedly switching off the mobile.

Kalpana’s father Harish Chandra Sharma said that her mobile has been switched off since August 23. “Last time when she came to Shahjahanpur she had told her mother that if her mobile remains switched off for long, they should understand that she is in trouble. We are calling her regularly but her phone remains switched off. This is a concern for us.  We are fighting a battle against big people who are politically well connected and have criminals as their ‘shishya’. We are ready to fight till the end,” Sharma told NH.

He said that police has lodged an FIR but has not taken any further action. She stayed in the hostel. He room is locked. Her mother had gone there on Monday in the evening but no one was there. No one is even willing to tell where Kalpana has gone and with whom.

The distraught father feigns ignorance about the charges of sexual harassment levelled against the manager of the SS Law College saying that Kalpana did not say anything about sexual harassment but had said that life was difficult in Shahjahanpur. “I hope police takes quick action and saves my daughter,” he said adding that police must also be under pressure because they (Swami Chinmayanand) are big people.

His apprehension is correct. It took almost 12 hours for the police to lodge an FIR against Swami Chinmayananda on the basis of complaint lodged by Sharma but they took no time to lodge FIR lodged by Advocate of Swami Chinmayanand alleging that he had been threatened to  pay ₹5 crore otherwise a video would be made viral.

The local police is silent on the question of the video. The girl in her video message which she had uploaded on August 24 at 4.01 pm had claimed that she has evidence to prove her charges and Swami’s men are also talking about video. “I have no knowledge about the video. We are working on all possible angles,” the SSP said.

There is an eerie silence at Swami’s Mumukshu Ashram situated in Shahjahanpur Kotwali police station area.  People are not willing to speak about it. No outsider, not even journalists are allowed to visit the girls’ hostel in SS Law College. The girl students of the college have been asked not to speak about it.

This is not the first time when Swami ji is embroiled in such controversy. A few years ago, he was accused of similar charges by a woman in his school. Despite attempts by Yogi government to withdraw case, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Shahjahanpur, had issued a bailable warrant against Chinmayanand, asking him to appear in person in court on July 12 last year.

The woman, who was also the manager of Mumukshu ashram run by Chinmayanand, had filed an FIR against him on November 30, 2011, alleging that she was held captive, raped and assaulted for several years. The victim recorded her statement before the judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC.

However, he was acquitted in the case later.