LUCKNOW: The Rae Bareli mishap on Sunday afternoon which left the Unnao rape survivor and her lawyer Mahendra Singh Chauhan critically injured while her two aunts were killed will have significant impact on the rape case in which BJP Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his accomplices are accused.
Sengar has been in lodged in Sitapur jail for a year and a half in connection with the rape case. Though the CBI, which is probing the rape case had filed three chargesheets linked to the cases of minor’s rape and also the murder of her father in jail due to the assault by MLA’s kin in connivance with the cops over a year ago, but the trial in the rape case is yet to begin.
Now the death of rape survivor’s aunt in Rae Bareli accident may come as a major jolt to the rape case as she was one of the key witnesses in the case. “Had she testified her statement in the special CBI trial court, the rape case would have been stronger in favour of the victim,” said a legal export. In fact, the sources claim that it was the deceased aunt with whom the rape survivor had shared her trauma primarily during a visit to Delhi in 2017.
Notably, the girl was raped allegedly by the MLA on June 4, 2017. Her father was booked under Arms Act on April 8, last year and sent to jail for allegedly possessing an illegal gun. The survivor had attempted self-immolation outside the chief minister’s residence in Lucknow on April 8 last year. Next day, her father died in hospital, after being attacked in the jail.
The CBI had taken over the case on April 12 last year and four cases were subsequently filed. On May 17, last year, the CBI arrested SHO of Makhi police station Ashok Singh Bhaduriya and sub-inspector Kamta Prasad Singh for planting a gun on the survivor’s father.
While the main case pertained to the sexual assault on a minor girl, the second case was on the assault and subsequent death of the survivor’s father in jail. The third case pertained to allegations of gang rape by three men including an aide of Sengar and the fourth was the counter-complaint lodged by the accused MLA’s brother alleging assault by the survivor’s kin.
Another police official who had been part of the investigation into rape case said that the rape survivor herself was battling for life and so was her lawyer, her aunt died in the accident, father was dead and uncle in jail facing criminal charges.
Moreover, earlier also, a key witness, Mohammad Yunus, 32, in the attack on rape survivor’s father had died mysteriously on August 18, 2018. The police, however, claimed that the witness’s family stated that he died due to illness. In fact, Yunus had seen attack on the survivor’s father by MLA’s brother. The rape survivor’s father had later succumbed to his injuries inflicted in judicial custody when he was sent to jail by the local police after being implicated in a fake case of possession of illegal firearms. Yunus had a grocery shop at the same spot in the Makhi area where the survivor’s father was attacked on April 3, 2018. The CBI had recorded Yunus’s statement and made him the key witness in the case against the BJP MLA and his aides.
On the other hand, rejecting the speculation that the case would go weak if the rape survivor doesn’t survive, the CBI sources claimed that they had enough evidence against the MLA in the case. Even she had recorded her statement before a magistrate under 164 CrPC.