A court in Delhi hearing the Unnao rape complainant’s cases on Wednesday ordered the media not to report testimonies of witnesses, PTI reported. The trial court will hear the cases on a daily basis and complete proceedings within 45 days.
The Unnao rape complainant and her lawyer are critical and on advanced life support at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre in New Delhi. “Both the patients are undergoing treatment under a multi-disciplinary team of doctors from critical care, orthopaedic, trauma surgery and pulmonary medicine,” said AIIMS Media and Protocol Division Chairperson Aarti Vij said.
The 19-year-old woman, who has accused four-time Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her, and her lawyer were critically injured in a car accident in Rae Bareli on July 28. Two of her aunts died in the accident. The teenager’s family has accused Sengar and his aides of orchestrating the accident.
The complainant was airlifted to Delhi from Lucknow on Monday night following a Supreme Court directive. The Delhi Traffic Police had cleared a corridor from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi to the AIIMS Trauma Centre for her on Monday night. The woman’s lawyer was airlifted to Delhi on Tuesday.
The Delhi court had on Tuesday sought a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation on the steps they have taken to ensure the safety of the injured Unnao rape complainant, her family and witnesses in the case. The CBI had last week taken over the cases connected with the rape after much criticism. The Supreme Court had also transferred five cases related to the complainant to a court in Delhi.
On Monday, the court had ordered expelled BJP MLA Sengar and his accomplice Shashi Singh to be shifted to Tihar jail from the Sitapur district prison in Uttar Pradesh. Singh had allegedly lured the victim to go to Sengar’s residence.
Sengar has been in jail since April 2018 in connection with the rape case. He was expelled from the BJP only on August 1. The CBI had booked Sengar, nine others and other unidentified persons for murder.
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