Social media came down strongly on former Union Minister and BJP leader Swami Chimayanand after a college student, who had accused him of harassing her, went missing from Uttar Pradesh’s Sahajanpur district. An FIR was lodged against the leader after the missing was filed.
On Friday, 23 August, an LLM student from a college in Shahjahanpur posted a video on Facebook calling out the director of her college, Swami Chinmayanand, for ‘destroying the lives of several girls’. She went missing two days later.
Similarities With Unnao
Activists, lawyers and even actors took to social media to point the similarities between this case and the Unnao rape case in which BJP leader Kuldeep Sengar has been accused of raping a minor girl.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi used the hashtag #EnoughIsEnough to condemn the incident in a series of tweets. She also pointed how accused Swami Chimayanand was given a clean chit in a rape case last year.
Actors like Richa Chadha and Swara Bhasker, who have always been vocal about social issues, termed the situation “scary”.
Activist Prashant Bhushan asked if this was another Unnao in the making.
‘Golden Hour Of Evidence’
Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nandy called this the ‘golden hour of evidence’ emphasising the need to find the girl as soon as possible.
Senior lawyer Indira Jaising tweeted that women lawyers of the Supreme Court had mentioned the case before the SC for suo moto action.
Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission For Women, said she will be writing to Uttar Pradesh Police, and that the Commission has taken cognisance of the matter.
‘Is This New India?’
Citizens in general also expressed their shock, with many questioning if this was the definition of ‘New India’.
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