The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday finally booked BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on charges of raping and kidnapping a minor girl from Unnao, but appeared reluctant to arrest him despite a rap by the Allahabad High Court.
The State government handed over the probe into the alleged gang-rape of the girl and the custodial death of her father to the CBI.
It said it was up to the agency to now decide if Mr. Sengar had to be arrested. The decision to hand over the case to the CBI was taken by the government after it examined the interim report submitted by a Special Investigation Team led by ADG (Lucknow) Rajeev Krishna on Wednesday.
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Mr. Sengar was booked under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (abducting and compelling a girl to marry), 376 (punishment for rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
The stringent provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) was also invoked.
However, asked why the MLA was not being arrested despite the requirement under POCSO, State DGP O.P. Singh said since the case had been handed over to the CBI, the investigating agency would take a call.
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“He is an accused... He has not been convicted yet. I am not defending him,” the top cop told reporters, when some of them pointed out that he was referring to the accused as “honourable MLA.”
High Court raps govt.
In the Allahabad High Court, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice Suneet Kumar wanted to know why the MLA was not being arrested even after the registration of an FIR. Appearing on behalf of the State government, advocate general Raghvendra Singh submitted that there was not enough material to arrest the MLA and the police were still gathering evidence. The court then lambasted the government, asking if it usually waited for evidence in all cases before making arrests.
After the SIT submitted the interim report, the government suspended Circle Officer of Safipur, Kunwar Bahadur Singh, for negligence in handling the repeated complaints by the victim. A separate enquiry report has also been prepared by DIG Prison Love Kumar on the role of the jail administration in Unnao during the period of detention of the minor’s father, said Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Home.
Doctors suspended
A report was obtained from DM, Unnao, on the lapses on the part of the district hospital. The government ordered the suspension of two doctors, D.K Dwivedi, Chief Medical Superintendent, and Prashant Upadhyay, emergency medical officer, for sending the patient back to jail despite his internal injuries.
Disciplinary action will also be initiated against orthosurgeon Manoj Kumar, surgeon G.P. Sachan and EMO Gaurav Agarwal for “laxity in giving him proper medical care and treatment, both prior to judicial custody and on referral from jail to the district hospital while in judicial custody.”