Lucknow, Apr. 12 (Agencies): Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday filed a case against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar in connection with the alleged gangrape of a minor girl in Unnao, soon after the government said it would hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The local police will continue with investigations till the CBI takes over, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said.

The CBI will decide whether or not to arrest the accused MLA, on the merits of the case after investigations, he said. 

The FIR or first information report against Sengar filed by the Unnao police on Thursday lists various sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

“An FIR be lodged under appropriate sections considering the allegations of rape levelled on MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and others and the investigation be handed over to CBI,” the Principal Secretary (Information) had said in a statement late on Wednesday night.

Kumar, the top home department official, and O.P. Singh, the state’s police chief, had told reporters that Sengar, who represents Unnao constituency in the legislative assembly, had not been named in the FIR till now as the girl had not mentioned his name in the statement given before the magistrate earlier.

The case was registered now that she and her family had told the Special Investigation Team, which visited them on Wednesday, that they had not done so because of fear, they said.   

Denying that police was trying to shield the MLA, the officials said it was because of such allegations that the probe was being handed over to the CBI.   

Besides, the government has also decided to extend security to the family of the 17-year-old girl, they said.   

The officials assured that no one found guilty will be spared and added that action has already been taken against some policemen and doctors for laxity and negligence.

The teen rape survivor, who had tried to set herself on fire outside the chief minister's residence just a day before her 50-year-old father died on Monday after being assaulted, has alleged that she was confined to a hotel room by the district administration.