The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR againt BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar and 10 others in the Unnao accident case. The accident occured on Sunday which left the survivor of the Unnao rape case and her lawyer critically injured and two of her aunts dead. On their way to Rae Bareli, the car they were travelling in was hit by a over-speeding truck which had its number plate blackened. Uttar Pradesh government on Monday recommended a CBI probe into the case after the survivor’s mother alleged that this was a conspiracy by Sengar to kill her daughter.
The mother had filed a rape complaint against Sengar in 2017 accusing the BJP MLA of sexually harassing her daughter when she had gone to his house to ask for a job. The police initially refused to name Sengar in the FIR. The 19-year-old woman’s father was allegedly beaten up by Sengar’s brother when he approached a court demanding that a rape case be registered against the BJP leader. The father was booked for assault under the Arms Act. His health deteriorated after he was sent to the jail, and he died 4 days later. The case gained national traction in 2018 when the survivor tried to self-immolate herself outside chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s house citing police inaction. The case was then handed over to the CBI and Sengar was jailed on April 13 last year.
After the accident on Sunday, the BJP came under heavy criticism for not taking action against Sengar. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party urged the saffron party to suspend the MLA and initiate a CBI probe into the ‘accident’. However, the BJP said that Sengar was already under suspension and will remain so until the verdict is out in the case.
UP police first claimed that as per their preliminary investigations, it seemed like an accident. But they later registered a murder case. Since the Unnao rape case came to light, the survivor has already lost three family members, while her uncle has been jailed in a criminal case.