Unnao rape: SIT report may lead to MLA’s arrest

Amid an outcry over the Unnao rape case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to hear next week a plea for a CBI probe, even as the wife of the accused BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh demanded narco tests of her husband and the 18-year-old woman, who alleged confinement by local authorities.

The Congress used the case to hit out at the BJP government with party president Rahul Gandhi wondering if Prime Minister Narendra Modi would observe a fast on the alleged rape and death of the complainant’s father in custody, which he said “has shamed humanity”. Separately, the Allahabad High Court sought to know the Yogi Adityanath-led state government’s stand on the incident, while posting the matter for hearing on Wednesday. 

The complainant, who had tried to immolate herself outside the Chief Minister’s house just a day before her 50-year-old father died on Monday, alleged that she has been confined to a hotel room by the district administration, leaving her “without a phone or water and guards at every corner”. She also accused the MLA’s brother and their henchmen of killing her elder uncle earlier. “I want justice, why are they putting pressure on me for an apology? Do they want my (another) uncle to be killed too?” 

A purported video of the alleged rape survivor’s father before his death also went viral and was shown by several TV channels, in which he alleged that he was mercilessly beaten up by the MLA’s brother and others, including with rifle butts. It also showed the deceased person’s back with serious wounds, but its veracity could not be ascertained.

Meanwhile in the state capital, Sangeeta Sengar, the wife of the accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, told reporters after meeting state police chief O P Singh that there was a political conspiracy against her family and accused the complainant of not being consistent in her statements. “We demand that a narco test be conducted on my husband and the girl as well as her uncle. This will help in ascertaining the truth and presenting the correct picture. There are political reasons behind this and my husband has been made a pawn,” Sangeeta Sengar said. 

“My husband is innocent and it is my request that he should not be called a rapist. He has been in politics for the past 15 years and has been serving the society and people,” she said, adding that her daughters were unable to concentrate on their studies in the wake of this incident.