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Regular-article-logo Wednesday, 24 April 2024

Unnao rape

The CBI on Wednesday named BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar as an accused in its chargesheet related to the gang rape of a teenaged girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao.

Our Special Correspondent Published 12.07.18, 12:00 AM
The CBI headquarters. Picture by Prem Singh

New Delhi: The CBI on Wednesday named BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar as an accused in its chargesheet related to the gang rape of a teenaged girl in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao.

"Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his associate Sashi Singh have been named as accused in connection with the gang rape of the 17-year-old girl," a CBI officer said.

The girl had alleged that she had been raped by the BJP MLA and his brother, Atul Singh Sengar, at the lawmaker's home when she had gone there to seek a job along with Kuldeep's aide Sashi.

Kuldeep has been booked for kidnapping, rape and criminal intimidation under the IPC and also relevant sections of the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act pertaining to sexual assault.

In another chargesheet filed by the CBI on July 7 in connection with the murder of the girl's father for allegedly refusing to withdraw the rape case, Atul and four of his aides had been named. That chargesheet, however, does not mention Kuldeep although he had been named in the FIR lodged by the victim's mother.

"The lawmaker's role in the murder case is still being probed," the CBI officer said.

In a video and an audio clip before the murder of the victim's father, he had alleged that he had been beaten up mercilessly, including with rifle butts and belts, by Atul and others in the presence of police. The father died in judicial custody.

Kuldeep is lodged in Sitapur jail along with Sashi, accused of luring the victim to the MLA's house.

The incident came to light in April after the victim and her mother tried to immolate themselves outside Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's residence alleging torture and harassment by the police.

Left red-faced by the allegations of gang rape and murder, the BJP government in the state had ordered the CBI inquiry after the incident triggered outrage across the country.

The uncle of the gape-rape victim, who had claimed on Sunday that the CBI was destroying evidence against the MLA, said on Wednesday that he was surprised to hear about the two "half-baked chargesheets with ulterior motives".

"The MLA was involved in kidnapping my brother and had conspired to kill him. He had forced senior police officers to cook up a false case under the Arms Act against my brother and put him in jail, where he was eventually killed. But Kuldeep's name was not there in the murder chargesheet," the uncle told reporters in Unnao.

"While the MLA was involved in the gang rape, his brother Atul was an accomplice in the crime along with four others. But the names of Atul and the four others are not there in the chargesheet submitted on Wednesday.... I fear the CBI is somehow trying to weaken the cases," he added.

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