Face of Nstion : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will probe the accident of the Unnao rape survivor, even as the girl continued to be critical on Monday morning, around 24 hours after the car in which her family and lawyer were travelling met with an accident in Rae Bareli. The woman, who had accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar of rape, and her lawyer were injured in the accident, while two of her aunts were killed. One of her aunts was reportedly a witness in the case against Sengar.
It was earlier reported that the rape survivor and her lawyer were shifted to Delhi for treatment on the family’s demand that they be moved from Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University, where they are being treated. The accident occurred when the woman, her lawyer and two aunts were travelling from Fatehpur to Rae Bareli jail to meet her uncle, Mahesh Singh, who is lodged there.
Amid intense political scrutiny of the accident and demands for a CBI probe, conflicting reports have emerged on the sequence of events. While some reports have quoted officials as saying that an over-speeding truck rammed into the car, the other version says the truck was stationary when the car crashed into it.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday ADG Lucknow Zone, Rajeev Krishna, said that the vehicles rammed into each other because of low visibility caused by heavy rainfall. “We are investigating if numbers of driver, cleaner and owner (of the truck) match with known numbers of Kuldeep Singh Sengar (accused in Unnao rape case) and his associates,” Krishna said.
A CBI forensic team visited the spot where the accident took place on Monday afternoon to determine the sequence of events while another team is said to have reached the Trauma Centre to speak to the rape survivor. “It was not an accident but a conspiracy to eliminate all of us,” the rape survivor’s mother said and claimed, “The son of a co-accused in the case, Shahi Singh, and another youth of the village had threatened us. They said that they will deal with us.”
The woman, who belongs to Makhi police station area in Unnao, had in 2017 alleged that Sengar, a four-time MLA who represents Bangermau in the UP Assembly, raped her teenage daughter at his residence. The case came to light after the survivor allegedly attempted self-immolation outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence.
