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Unnao Rape Case: CBI FIR Reveals More BJP Connections As Survivor Fights For Life

The Supreme Court will hear a petition on the mishandling of the case, even as the survivor has lost two members of her family after Sunday's accident.
Heavy police force seen outside the Trauma centre at King George's Medical University where Unnao rape survivor is admitted.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Heavy police force seen outside the Trauma centre at King George's Medical University where Unnao rape survivor is admitted.

The Unnao rape survivor remains on life support even as her case is to be heard by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

A letter from the survivor to the CJI surfaced in the aftermath of the ‘accident’ that left two of her aunts dead. Gogoi had said on Wednesday that the letter was never shown to him.

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“This morning I read in the papers that the Unnao victim had written to the SC. I was informed about the letter yesterday (Tuesday). I have not yet seen the letter. It is yet to be placed before me. We try to do something constructive in the midst of this highly destructive volatile environment and this happens,” the CJI had said on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court will hear a plea on the mishandling of the entire case.

Whoddunit?

While the UP police had earlier maintained that it was just an accident, the CBI has now named the son-in-law of an Uttar Pradesh minister in its charge sheet. Ranvendra Pratap Singh’s son-in-law Arun Singh has been named along with rape accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the FIR registered on July 29, following the truck-car collision on Sunday in Rae Bareli district.

Sengar had allegedly raped the woman in 2017 when she was still a minor when she was taken to his home on the pretext of getting her a job.

Those named in the FIR are on the defensive. Ranvendra Pratap Singh pointed fingers at his political adversaries and said he was being falsely implicated. “This FIR has been registered to falsely implicate me. You can take my location, conduct a Narco test, check my track record of past six months and also check my call details,” Arun Singh told PTI over phone.

““If you find even a remote connection, you can point fingers at me. I am absolutely confident that there is not even a remote connection of the case with me””

“If you find even a remote connection, you can point fingers at me. I am absolutely confident that there is not even a remote connection of the case with me,” he said.

“I am willing to fully cooperate with the CBI,” he added, claiming that he has been named in the FIR owing to political rivalry with a co-accused in the car-truck collision case, Awadhesh Singh, whom he had defeated in an election for the block pramukh from Nawabganj in Unnao.

Arjun Singh could not figure out what his crime was. “Is it a crime to be someone’s son-in-law?”

While the Uttar Pradesh police had first called it an accident, it later registered a murder case against Sengar, who has been accused by the survivor’s family for Sunday’s incident.

The family was traveling to Rae Bareili to meet the girl’s uncle Mahesh Singh, serving a life-term in a separate case, when a truck hit their car, killing two women and leaving the survivor and her lawyer grievously injured.

Survivor fights for life, aunt cremated

Doctors on Wednesday told PTI that the survivor remains on life support while having made a tiny bit of improvement. “The rape survivor has sustained multiple fractures. Today there was very slight improvement in her condition, but this cannot be termed as satisfactory. She is still unconscious,” Dr Sandeep Tiwari, the in-charge of the hospital’s trauma centre said.

Tiwari said a CT scan conducted on the woman on Tuesday showed no head injury.

“However, a head injury cannot be ruled out as many head injuries are not detected in the CT scan. The condition of the rape survivor is stable, and a team of doctors are monitoring her 24 hours. She is on ventilator,” he said.

“We have cremated my aunt today as my uncle had to go back to jail. I was the only male member left after him, so we have brought the ashes with us. I will now cremate my mother tomorrow morning in our home town of Barabanki,” the survivor’s cousin told The Indian Express.

Mahesh Singh, who was granted short-term bail to attend the last rites of his wife, was brought to the Ganga ghat from the Rae Bareli district jail to attend the ritual.

Earlier in the day, the body of 45-year-old woman was brought from the Lucknow hospital to her native village in Unnao to the wailing cries of close relatives. The house, which is just 100 metres from the house of the rape-accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, was surrounded by a large number of police and PAC personnel.

A few people close to the victim’s family accompanied the body to the cremation ground after about an hour.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.