Unnao rape case: CBI questions expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in UP prison

Police and people stand near the wreckage of the car in which the Unnao rape survivor was travelling during its collision with a truck near Raebareli. (PTI Photo)

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court expressed strong displeasure over the handling of the Unnao rape case and the road accident last Sunday. It transferred all cases related to the matter from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, while ordering interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the victim and CRPF security cover for her, the family and their lawyer. However, family members of the Unnao rape survivor on Friday told SC that they do not want to shift the victim to New Delhi from a hospital in Lucknow. The survivor is unconscious and is in critical condition.

Various student organisations jointly protest against the Unnao rape incident as they burn an effigy of main accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in Kolkata, Wednesday. (PTI Photo)

Sengar, who is in jail for allegedly raping the woman when she was a minor in 2017, was booked for murder by the CBI after the accident. His arms licences for a single barrel gun, a rifle and a revolver were cancelled on Friday, some 15 months after he was arrested on April 13, 2018.

Victim’s condition critical has developed pneumonia

According to the doctors treating the victim at the Trauma Centre in King George’s Medical University here, she has developed pneumonia and her condition remains critical. “She is still on the ventilator,” the doctors said. However, the lawyer is breathing without ventilator support, but the two of them are in an unconscious state, a medical bulletin released by the hospital read.

BJP MLA sympathises with Sengar in his ‘difficult times’

Meanwhile, in a controversial remark, BJP MLA Ashish Singh Ashu sympathised with Sengar in his ‘difficult times’ saying “Our brother Kuldeep Singh could not be here among us today as he is going through difficult times. Our best wishes are with him. We hope that he will overcome the bad times, fight through it and come out of it and be with all of you to lead you,” Ashu could be heard saying in the video made at a panchayat meeting in Unnao on Friday, PTI reported.

However, the saffron party has distanced itself from the comment, with party spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi saying  “So far as the BJP is concerned, whatever disciplinary action it had to take, has been taken. Sengar has been expelled. “Unless one is proved guilty, one is innocent in the eyes of the law. Maybe the MLA (Ashu) spoke on these lines.”