Lucknow: A CBI team investigating charges in the Unnao case against expelled BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar, accused of trying to murder the teen he allegedly raped, has asked for details of the politician's visitors in jail.
The CBI, which filed a chargesheet against the lawmaker a year ago, has been spurred into action after the Supreme Court yesterday gave a seven-day deadline to the agency to investigate a deadly road accident in Uttar Pradesh that has left the teen rape survivor in a critical state, on life support.
The teen was travelling by road from her hometown Unnao to Raebareli on Sunday when the car was hit by a speeding truck with its number plate blackened. Two of the girl's aunts died in the crash and she is on the ventilator.
Sources say CBI officials have recorded the statement of police officers who arrived first at the site of the crash.
Another team is checking on the truck, which was from Banda, and the goods loaded in it.
The rape survivor's family has named Kuldeep Sengar in their First Information Report on the crash, accusing him of plotting the incident to kill the girl in an attempt to escape charges.
The girl's family had written to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on July 12 alleging grave danger to them from Kuldeep Sengar and his aides. The family had asked for protection, alleging that they had been harassed and intimidated over the past year and pressured to drop the case against the lawmaker.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered central security for the family and shifted five cases linked to the Unnao rape survivor to Delhi. The court also announced deadlines for resolution of the cases.
The case has been seen as an example of flagrant abuse of power by a politician who was apparently given a long rope by the administration.
Kuldeep Sengar, a four-time BJP lawmaker, has been in jail since April 2018. He was suspended after his arrest. Yesterday, the BJP expelled him amid growing criticism about its reluctance to act against the politician.
The UP government has ordered an inquiry after mobile phone footage from outside the Sitapur jail, where Kuldeep Sengar is lodged, appeared to show an employee promising someone a meeting with the jailed lawmaker against the rules.
"There is lot of media pressure right now. You come back in 15 to 20 days. Just take my name and they will let you meet him," a man in a striped tee shirt, apparently a jail worker, is heard telling a man in a white shirt, believed to be an aide of Kuldeep Sengar.
The man identifies himself as Mahendra Yadav, a jail employee.
Prisoners are allowed visitors but only at specific times and under strict rules. The mobile video has prompted an investigation into whether special treatment was being given to Sengar.