CONGRESS SEEKS UP CM REMOVAL CITING HIGH COURT STRICTURES

UNNAO RAPE CASE

Rapists should be hanged: Nirbhaya’s mom

New Delhi: Parents of Nirbhaya, the paramedic student raped and murdered in 2012, advocated death penalty for rapes and said though society had progressed, “our daughters are not safe”. The 23-year-old student was brutally gangraped on a moving bus in the national capital on December 16, 2012, and a fortnight later, on December 29, she succumbed in a Singapore hospital.

New Delhi :  The Congress on Saturday demanded sacking of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, citing the Allahabad High Court’s strictures on how his government played havoc in the Unnao rape case. Its communication chief Randeep Singh Surjewala quoted excerpts from the Court order that led to arrest of rape accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and said it reveals, “How a CM can become deaf, blind and mute to heinous crimes like rape, custodial death of the victim’s father and to the continuous loud cries of the victim’s family.”

He said the Court’s 20-page order reveals how BJP leaders have mastered the art of extending state protection to rapists with blatant cover-ups, shaming the victim,

defending the accused and crying conspiracy. “Jungle Raj and Goonda Raj actively aided and abetted by the Adityanath government has become a pain for people of the state and has conclusively exposed BJP’s slogan of Beti Bachao,” Surjewala said.

He pointed out that the High Court has put on record that “The disturbing feature of the case is that law and order machinery and the government officials were directly in league and under the influence of Kuldeep Singh,” noting that the police did not take down his name, nor allowed the victim make any allegations against him and did not register her complaint against him.

On the Advocate General’s insensitive stand that no accused can be arrested without the investigating officer (IO) following the procedure and collecting evidence in support of allegations of rape, the High Court dubbed his approach as “not only appalling but shocks the conscience of the court in the backdrop of the instant case… The prosecutrix (victim) and her family members have been running from pillar to post but her complaint was not registered, despite approaching the CM.”

The High Court even questioned “The bona fides of police authorities at the highest level” from the way the advocate general “vehemently and categorically stated that the IO will not arrest accused Kuldeep Singh until statements under Section 161/164 CRPC are recorded.”

Ordering the arrest, the Court said, “Arrest of accused in the present case is necessarily required to safeguard the majesty of law and dignity of the prosecutrix and to instil confidence that free, fair investigation shall be undertaken by the investigating agency.”

Woman who lured victim to MLA arrested: The CBI made a second arrest in the Unnao case as it took into custody Shashi Singh, the woman who allegedly took the victim to BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on the day of crime, officials said. A special court in Lucknow has sent Sengar, the prime accused in the case, to a seven-day CBI custody, they said. In her complaint to UP Police, now part of the CBI FIR, the victim’s mother alleged that Shashi Singh had lured her daughter and took her to Sengar’s residence where he raped her. She has also alleged that while the MLA was raping her daughter, Shashi Singh stood outside the room as a guard.

A team visited the crime scenes in Makhi village in Unnao district and talked to the victim’s family, witnesses and officials of the hospital where the victim and her father were taken for treatment. The first FIR pertains to the alleged rape of the girl in which Sengar and Shashi Singh have been named as accused. The second pertains to rioting, in which four locals have been booked, and the alleged killing of the victim’s father in judicial custody. Since the murder charge was added later by the state police, it does not reflect in the CBI FIR. The third case pertains to the allegations against the victim’s father, who was arrested by the police under the Arms Act and put in jail, where he died. According to the post-mortem examination report, he had suffered serious injuries.

The victim has alleged that on June 4, 2017, she was raped by BJP MLA Sengar at his residence, when she had gone to meet him, along with a relative, seeking a job. A video, purportedly showing the victim’s father before his death, has gone viral. Several television news channels have also aired it. In the video, the victim’s father alleged he was mercilessly beaten up, including with rifle butts, by the MLA’s brother and others in presence of police personnel.

Meanwhile, a special CBI court on Saturday sent to seven days CBI custody, rape accused Uttar Pradesh BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, while the medical examination of the 17-year-old victim was conducted at a hospital here earlier in the day.