New Delhi/Lucknow/Unnao: A day after the Supreme Court had transferred all five cases related to the Unnao rape victim to a court in Delhi and directed the court to hold trial on a daily basis, it made an exception for the accident case on Friday.
The apex court made an exception in this case to enable Central Bureau of Investigation to carry out its proceedings, after the CBI argued that by shifting the the case, the local court would face a technical hurdle in passing remand orders for those arrested (10 people, including Sengar) during its probe.
A media report said six Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory experts had reached the accident site on Friday morning to recreate the crime scene in Raebareli. 20 more members have been appointed to a help the five-member team already probing the truck-car collision. The victim’s two aunts were killed in the accident while she and her lawyer very severely injured.
The Apex court also said that it will take a call on airlifting the victim, who has been kept in ventilator support at a Lucknow hospital, to AIIMS later and also said her family members had the liberty to exercise it anytime. The court on Monday will pass orders on whether the woman should be moved to AIIMS in Delhi after noting the hesitation among family members.
The victim and her lawyer are admitted at the trauma centre of King George’s Medical University. The woman’s family alleges that the collision was a deliberate attempt to kill her by those close to expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. He is already serving jail term since last year for allegedly raping the woman when she was a minor in 2017.
The apex court also directed shifting the 19-year-old woman’s uncle Mahesh Singh, who was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in a two-decade-old case filed by Sengar’s brother Atul Singh, under armed escort from a Raebareli jail to the Tihar prison in Delhi. The compliance report on this should be laid before the court on Monday, it ordered.
Meanwhile, in Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh police ordered a probe after a policeman posted at the jail where Sengar is lodged was seen in a video purportedly accepting a bribe from a man considered close to the former MLA.
However, Director General, Prisons, Anand Kumar, said in a media report that if policemen are found guilty, they will be dismissed.
Meanwhile, Sengar’s arms licence is yet to be cancelled. Unnao District Magistrate Divendra Kumar Pandey said a decision on this has to be taken by the court after hearing both sides. Both the police and Sengar’s lawyers have filed their reports on the matter, but the hearing could not take place because of a lawyers’ strike, he said.
Reacting to the case, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed that the Supreme Court directions on Thursday confirmed that Jungle Raj prevailed in Uttar Pradesh. Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati said the agony suffered by the Unnao woman has put the state government to shame.