Unnao murder case: Now, CBI arrests another person

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested on Saturday night another person in connection with the attack on the Unnao rape victim girl’s father that caused his death. The agency procured his four-day police custody remand from a city court on Sunday.

With that, the CBI has so far arrested eight people, including the BJP MLA from Unnao’s Bangarmau assembly seat Kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother Atul Singh Sengar and their five aides, including a woman Shashi Singh.

A senior CBI official said the accused Shashi Pratap Singh was arrested after the agency came to know that he was the person with whom the girl’s father first had a confrontation, after which he was attacked allegedly by the BJP MLA’s brother and his goons. He said Singh’s arrest had been shown in connection with the FIR of the girl’s father and his custody remand had been taken to interrogate him further about the sequence of event.

He said Singh would be quizzed on the role of Tinku Singh, who had lodged an FIR against the girl’s father. Tinku, however, is still untraceable and CBI was searching for him, he added.

The girl’s father was allegedly falsely framed in a case of possessing illicit arms and sent to jail on the complaint of Tinku, after been beaten up by the MLA’s brother and his goons on the evening of April 3. The girl’s father was then lodged in Unnao district jail without proper medical treatment resulting in his death in the Unnao district hospital on April 9.

The girl’s father was allegedly attacked by Atul and his aides to mount pressure on him to not pursue his petition filed in Unnao court to get an FIR registered against the MLA for allegedly raping his daughter on June 4, 2017.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested the MLA and his woman aide Shashi Singh after registering an FIR of rape and kidnapping on April 12. His brother and four others were also arrested in the matter.

The development has come after the BJP-led governments in the state and the Centre faced criticism over the handling of the Unnao rape case, which grabbed headlines after the rape survivor held a protest outside chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s Lucknow residence and attempted self-immolation on April 8.