The Allahabad High Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to arrest, and not just detain, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA accused of raping a girl in Unnao district in June 2017, ANI reported. The court said it would monitor the investigation and asked the agency to submit a status report by May 2.
On Thursday night, the CBI had detained the MLA, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, for questioning. Sengar has been charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code. On Wednesday, the state government had asked the CBI to take over the inquiry into the alleged rape of the girl and the death of her father in judicial custody.
The High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the rape case. On Wednesday, it ordered a stay on the cremation of the body of the girl’s father, but it had already been cremated by then.
At the hearing on Thursday, the court asked the counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government why Sengar had not been arrested till then. The state government told the bench that investigators did not have enough evidence against him.
CBI begins investigation in Unnao
The CBI on Friday visited the complainant’s home for questioning and also questioned the doctors who had treated the teenager at Unnao District Hospital. The medical superintendent and casualty officer at Unnao District Hospital were suspended and departmental inquiry initiated against three other doctors, ANI reported.
The teenager’s uncle said that the CBI took statements of all family members separately. “They said they will collect evidence later,” he told reporters. “We will go to Lucknow tomorrow. The CBI team has called us there, but we do not know the reason.”
The teenager has accused Sengar and some of his aides of raping her in June 2017. On April 8, she tried to commit suicide outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath’s house. Her father, who was in judicial custody after he got into a fight with the MLA’s brother, died on April 9.
On Tuesday, the police arrested the MLA’s brother Atul Sengar and four others for assaulting the man. The autopsy report listed multiple abrasions near the abdomen, buttocks, thighs, above and below knee joints and arms, indicating that his death may have been caused by physical assault.
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