In a recent event, the girl who was raped in Unnao in 2017 by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was travelling to Raebareli to meet her uncle in Raebareli Jail, when a truck hit her car. The car was carrying the rape survivor, her lawyer and her two aunts when the truck having number plate smeared with black grease, smashed the vehicle, killing two people and leaving only two survivors. The incident happened in Gurubaksh Ganj area of Rae Bareli on Sunday afternoon.
It is strongly believed that the accident is a planned activity, which has been undertaken as per the directions of Kuldeep Singh Sengar, to either kill the victim or force her family to stop pursuing the case lodged against him. The 19-year-old victim and her lawyer have been severely injured and are battling for life in the trauma centre of Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University.
Although the plate number of the truck was smeared, the police have however identified the same. The number of the truck was “UP-71-AT-8300”. On being asked about why the number of the truck was smeared, the owner of the truck stated that he had not paid the instalment of the loan taken for purchasing the truck, hence he was trying to dodge the financers by greasing the number plate in black colour.
After the rape incident, the rape victim and her family were given the security of two women constable and a gunman on a permanent basis. However, they were not accompanying the victim on their way to Raebareli. As explained by DGP OP Singh, the girl and her family denied the police cover on their way to Raibareli because there was not enough space in the vehicle to carry all of them. Hence they dropped off the cover.
A fresh FIR has been registered against Sengar (who is already in prison) regarding Murder and Attempt to Murder for the accident. The case has been in the headlines for almost 2 years now however, the victim has not yet received the justice and the accused are still breathing the freedom in custody of the U.P. Police. As we stand here today on a timeline, where Indian Judicial System and UP Police and government are the true examples of shameful Indian administration, here are some glimpses from the past two years which titles every single update in the Unnao Rape Case.
History/Timeline of the Unnao Rape case of 17-Year-Old Girl:
4th June 2017: A 17-year-old girl who was in need of employment to support her family, approached BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar with a hope that he, being a powerful person in the society and holding an authorised position might help him in some way. She was convinced by a neighbour Shashi Singh that she will get a job, once she approached Sengar with a request.
However, things turned out to be the super opposite. When she reached Sengar’s place, she was asked to go to a room saying that “Sengar Sir is sitting inside”. The innocent minor girl was then gang-raped in the room multiple times by Kuldeep Singh and his men, multiple times. Afterwards, Kuldeep Singh threatened her that if she utters any word then she along with her whole family will be killed.
11th June 2017: The girl was allegedly kidnapped by Shubham Singh and was taken to some secret facility where he and his Car Driver Awadesh Tiwari raped the girl multiple times. This kept on going for a whole week. During this time she was raped by multiple unknown men. Afterwards, the girl was sold to a guy named Brajesh Yadav for Rs. 60,000/-.
When the family could not find their daughter, they lodged an FIR in this regard. The police had started an investigation.
20th June 2017: As a result of Police Investigation, the girl was recovered from a village Auraiya which is close to the Unnao, home village of the girl from where she was kidnapped. The girl was being kept confined after being raped multiple times. She was sent for a medical examination soon afterwards.
22nd June 2017: Victim’s Statement was recorded about what had happened with her where the girl named everyone she remembered. She elaborated the whole story including everything that happened with her at Sengar’s Place. All the statements were recorded in front of Magistrate. The Police, being the loyal servants of BJP MLA Sengar, had already warned the girl of not taking MLA Sengar’s name in the official statement. However, the girl was very courageous and had made up her mind to fight for justice and make criminals pay for their crime. As a result, she told each and everything including incidents that happened at Sengar’s house.
3rd July 2017: The Girl reached her Uncle’s house in Delhi to start living with him. She told them each and every single thing that happened with her. Her Uncle and Aunt assured her to be by her side till the end of the fight and they will definitely yield justice at the end. The uncle is currently in prison as a consequence of fighting for her Nephew against BJP MLA. We will get to that soon.
Between this time, the girl was being harassed by police as well as by the goons of MLA Senger for filing a case against MLA and his brother. On being frustrated, the girl wrote to the CM of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, asking why there hasn’t been any serious action taken against the rapists until now even though the FIR has been filed.
She continuously kept fighting for justice. Even her mother gave many statements in court questioning the law as to why the names of the accused people have not been included in the case yet. However, things took a really bad turn in April-2018
3rd April 2018: While the girl was fighting for justice, Atul Singh Sengar, brother of MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar along with his goons brutally beat victim’s father. This happened when the father returned home after appearing in a hearing in Delhi. The hearing was related to the same case.
His crime was that even after so many warnings and death threats from the goons, the family had not yet withdrawn the case. All this happened in the presence of Police officers. Further, when the family tried to lodge a complaint against Atul Singh Sengar and his goons, the police rather took Victim’s father in custody stating that he is spreading nuisance.
8th April 2018: Amidst all the violence, death threats and goons roaming around the victim’s family, there was still no action in this regard at the end of BJP Party senior leaders, nor any serious action on behalf of the police or the court. As a result of the unbearable frustration, the victimized girl went to Lucknow, in front of the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s house, and tried to burn herself alive in front of his house with kerosene. However, she was stopped from doing so by the police force present over there at the last moment.
9th April 2018: After the abrupt beating by the goons and after staying in the custody of Police where he is reported to be beaten up by the police officials over the night, victim’s father took his last breath in the Police Confinements under judicial custody. The postmortem report stated that he had around 14 serious injuries on his body which were the main cause of his death.
10th April 2018: After the peer pressure from the media and looking at the aggression of the people, Crime Branch of U.P. Police had to finally arrest Atul Singh Sengar and 4 others for the beating of Victim’s father and they were booked U/S 304, 323 & 504 of IPC.
11th April 2018: After multiple appeals by the victim to the additional DGP of Lucknow Rajiv Krishnan and looking at the seriousness of the case, a Special Investigation Team was formed to probe the alleged rape.
12th April 2018: FIR was registered against BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar. This was the first time since the inception of the case that FIR had been registered against him. He was charged for the rape of 17-year-old under IPC and POCSO Act. Allahabad High Court ordered the case to be transferred to CBI.
13th April 2018: Allahabad High Court ordered the arrest of the BLP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. CBI arrests the accused.
14th April 2018: CBI arrested Shashi Singh, the woman who had allegedly lured the victim to Sengar’s house on June 4 2017.
April 2018: BJP suspends MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar from his party post. However, he still continued to hold his position as an MLA of U.P. Legislative Assemble.
May 2018: The case proceeded and things started surfacing to CBI. As a result, Sengar and others were booked for plotting conspiracy against Victim’s father in a false case and arrested two policemen. Further, on the plea of the victim, Sengar and Shashi were moved to Sitapur jail from Unnao. The plea urged that the victim and her family felt unsafe because of the death threats from the goons of MLA Sengar.
7th July 2018: CBI recorded their 1s Chargesheet in the case. The charge sheet accused Atul Singh Sengar and few others (Total 5 people) for the murder of Victim’s Father.
11th July 2018: CBI filed 2nd Charge Sheet against yet another 5 people including Jaideep Singh Sengar (Also a brother of Kuldeep Singh Sengar) on the same ground of the murder of Victim’s father. They were charged under sections 120B (conspiracy), 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage, etc), 376 (rape), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and under the POCSO Act.
13th July 2018: CBI filed 3rd charge sheet against Kuldeep Singh Sengar for multiple crimes including the rape of a 17-year-old girl and for plotting all the activities that took place since the inception of the case.
Even after all this, the victim and her family were still continuously receiving death threats from the goons of the rapist. After being arrested, MLA Kuldeep was being kept in Sitapur Jail, which is merely 120 km away from Lucknow. The Victim’s uncle and the whole family were requesting the government of moving the accused to jail in MP or Rajasthan as the accused was in vicinity from where he could still control his goons and the police.
18 August 2018: Younus, who was a key witness to the assault and rape of the victim, died suddenly. Victim’s Uncle alleged that Younus was poisoned to death. Further, the death of Younus was not taken seriously and he was buried with no Autopsy. Thus, it is still a mystery whether he was murdered by poisoning or it was a natural death.
21st November 2018: The Victim’s uncle who was a simple businessman of Delhi, was arrested by the police in Rai-Barely on the grounds of an 18-year-old gun firing case. The case was that he made some bullet fires in the air back in that time. Charge sheets were filed against him.
26 December 2018: An FIR was lodged against the rape victim, her mother and uncle at Makhi Police Station. The charge was regarding a conspiracy which stated that the proof of date of birth of the rape victim submitted to the police was forged. The FIR accused that the Victim was not minor when she was raped.
4th July 2019: The case which was going on against Victim’s uncle took a serious turn and he was sentenced by the court for 10 years of imprisonment. His uncle was transferred to the Raebareli Jail in accordance with the order.
Middle of July 2019: Victim had written a letter to the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi about how their life is under threat and how the support of the police is not reliable anymore. However, no hearing in this regard could be conducted.
28th July 2019: Victim, along with her 2 aunts and her lawyer were travelling to Rai Barely to meet her uncle in the jail. She was not accompanied by the 3 police officials (1 Gun Man and 2 Women Constables) who were appointed for the protection of the Victim and her family. The car was moving from the Gurubaksh-ganj area of the Raebareli when a truck smashed into their vehicle. The 4 people were rushed to the nearby hospital where the 2 aunts were declared dead and then the girl and her lawyer who were in serious condition, were moved to Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University Trauma Centre. Currently, both of them are on ventilator and battling for their life.
The victim girl has multiple fractures in her lungs and serious injuries in her brain. The aunt who died in the accident was the only person who knew each and every single thing about the case. As per the explanation provided by the 3 Police Officials, they stayed back because the Victim and her family said that there was not enough space in the vehicle in which they were travelling.
29th July 2019: A fresh FIR has been lodged against Kuldeep Singh Sengar and 29 others for the conspiracy of Murder and Attempt to murder of the Victim, her lawyer and her family.
1st August 2019: Supreme Court order the U.P. Government to shift the rape case and all other related cases to Delhi. The Supreme court ordered a 45-day deadline for the cases to conclude the trial. Besides, SC has ordered the U.P. government to pay Rs. 25 lakh to the Victim as interim compensation. SC has also ordered CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) protection to the survivor & her lawyer. CBI has been ordered by SC to investigate the whole agenda of the Accident in 7 days time. However, CBI has requested for a month’s time limit.
The current situation of the case.
The Girl who was gang-raped multiple times has multiple fractures in her body and is currently fighting her life in a hospital. Her father had already died in the judicial custody after multiple beatings by goons and Police officials. Her widowed mother is still fighting for justice for her daughter and her husband. Survivor’s Uncle is serving a 10-year life sentence in a jail in Rai barely after being proven guilty in a 19-year-old case which was already closed. Her two aunts (Mosi and Chachi) have lost their lives in the accident that took place on Sunday. Her Lawyer is also battling for life after serious injuries in the same accident. The only eye witness of the incident who came up to support the girl in the case had already died months back under suspicious conditions.
All the accused of the cases are either roaming freely in the free vicinity of U.P. or are resting in the safe custody of Police Officials in Prison. The supreme court has ordered shifting of the case from U.P to Delhi, asked UP govt to pay Rs. 25 lakh compensation to Victim and ordered CBI to investigate the accident in a week’s time.
Update | 03/08/2019: Supreme court had ordered the concerned people to shift the survivor to AIIMS, Delhi. However, it is also instructed not to do so without the permission of the victim and her family. The victim and her family had denied to shift them to AIIMS saying that they can manage things more easily by staying closer to their hometown. The hearing of the case if continued on a regular basis. Last hearing took place on Saturday. Next hearing is scheduled on Monday 05th August 2019.
