The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the complainant in the Unnao rape case on the Union government’s plea seeking to withdraw the security cover provided to her and her family by the Central Reserve Police Force, PTI reported.
The woman was raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district in 2017.
The woman and her family had been provided cover by the central security force after an order of the court in 2019. The court had noted at the time that there was a threat to the lives of the survivor, her mother and her lawyer, among other persons.
In December 2019, expelled Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted of raping the woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao in 2017. She was a minor at the time. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and was also ordered to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation to the complainant. His appeal is pending in the Delhi High Court.
In March 2020, Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brother Jaideep Singh Sengar, among others, were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for the killing of the woman’s father in judicial custody.
On Tuesday, the bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said that it would like to close the matter relating to the security cover for the woman as there was hardly any perception of a threat to her.
An analysis had shown that the woman and her family no longer needed a security detail, the counsel representing the Centre had told the court, PTI reported.
As the woman and her family now reside in Delhi, the Union government had contended that the security cover must be provided by the Delhi Police or the Uttar Pradesh.
The Central Reserve Police Force reports to the Union home ministry.
In 2019, the Supreme Court had transferred all matters relating to the rape case from a Lucknow court to a Delhi court.
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