The Supreme Court on Thursday transferred all the four cases in connection with the Unnao rape case to New Delhi and has asked the CBI court in Delhi to complete trial proceedings in 45 days. The apex court has also asked the CBI to complete the probe into the truck accident – where the survivor and her lawyer were injured and two of the survivor’s aunts were killed – within a fortnight and preferably within seven days. The CBI had sought 30 days to complete the investigation.
The court has also asked the survivor’s lawyer to ask her family whether they would like her to be shifted to AIIMS in Delhi by an air ambulance. The survivor is currently undergoing treatment at King George Medical College in Lucknow. The SC had asked the doctors at the hospital to form a panel and inform the court by 2 pm whether the same was feasible. The Solicitor General informed the court that the survivor can be moved to Delhi.
The Supreme Court also directed the state government to grant a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the rape survivor and her family by Friday. The Uttar Pradesh government has also been directed to provide security to the rape survivor’s mother and her siblings as well as the lawyer who was injured in the accident. The Supreme Court has asked the CRPF to provide security at a safe place near Rae Bareilly.
The apex court was hearing the survivor’s plea seeking that the probe into four cases case be transferred out of Uttar Pradesh. The four cases are: The rape case, the fake Arms Act case filed against the survivor’s father, the probe into the subsequent custody death of victim's father and the gangrape case of the survivor.
The court had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter written by the family of the rape survivor alleging threats from accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar's men.
In the letter to the CJI, the young rape survivor, her mother, sister, uncle and aunt alleged that the henchmen of the accused MLA were threatening to implicate them in false cases if they did not settle the case. The letter also contained a video recording of the criminal intimidation and the photographs of the accused.
On Sunday, the rape survivor, who had accused Sengar of raping her in 2017, was travelling to Rae Bareilly with her lawyer Mahendra Singh and two aunts when a truck being driven on the wrong side rammed into their car. While the rape victim and her lawyer are on life support, her two aunts in the car, including one who was a witness to the crime, died in the accident. The number plate of the truck that rammed into the car bore signs of tampering in an attempt to conceal the registration number, leading to questions over whether the accident was ‘planned’.
Kuldeep Sengar, the accused MLA, whom BJP expelled from the party on Thursday, has been in jail for the past several months. Sengar's brother has also been accused of beating up the victim's father after tying him to a tree. Her father was then arrested and later died in police custody.