The CBI on Wednesday sought more time from the Supreme Court to record a statement from the lawyer involved in the road accident along with the Unnao rape case survivor on July 28 near Rae Bareli.
Both the girl and the lawyer were shifted to the AIIMS for advanced medical treatment from a Lucknow hospital on the orders of the apex court.
A Bench led by Justice Deepak Gupta agreed to give the CBI two weeks more to complete its probe into the accident case and file a chargesheet in the trial court. The court scheduled the next hearing for October.
In the last hearing on September 6, the Bench had similarly given the CBI a fortnight to complete its probe into the ‘accident’.
The collision with a truck left the girl and her lawyer critically injured while two of her relatives were killed.
Cases transferred
On August 1, the court had transferred five cases of crimes committed against the Unnao rape survivor and her family from a CBI court in Lucknow to its counterpart in Delhi. It had also ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to pay her ₹25 lakh as interim compensation.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had on that day ordered that the trial in the Unnao cases be held on a day-to-day basis and completed within 45 days. The court had even gone the extra mile to zero in on District Judge Dharmesh Sharma as the trial judge.
Four of these cases include the rape of the minor in 2017; a false case foisted against her father under the Arms Act by conniving police officers; the custodial death of the survivor’s father after he was arrested in the Arms case; and a second instance of gang rape of the survivor. Though the CBI has filed chargesheets in the four cases, the Lucknow court is yet to frame charges against the accused persons.
Fifth case
The fifth case concerns the “accident” on July 28 when a speeding truck rammed into a car carrying the now 19-year-old rape survivor.
In fact, it was only later that the apex court came to know that she had, days before the ‘accident’, reached out to the CJI in a letter. But her cry for help had largely remained unnoticed in the court’s Registry for almost a fortnight.
Her letter, dated July 12, had spelt out threats to her life and her family from the accused persons, which include Kuldeep Singh Sengar, four-time BJP MLA from Bangermau. The letter landed at the court Registry on July 17, but did not reach the CJI’s table till July 30 — well after the ‘accident’ on Sunday.
The court had initially ordered the CBI to complete its probe into the ‘accident’ case in seven days.
