New Delhi: A Chief Justice led bench of the Allahabad high court lashed out at the Uttar Pradesh government and police for working "directly in league" and "influence" of Unnao rape accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar.
Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale along with Justice Suneet Kumar on Friday said that even though the BJP legislator had been charged under the stringent sexual offences law, there was no development in the case as “law and order and the state machinery were directly in league and under influence of Kuldeep Singh".
Terming the development as a “disturbing feature of the case”, the bench directed the CBI to complete the probe in the case by May 2.
Sengar is accused to raping an 18-year-old woman along with his brother and aides in June last year when she was a minor.
A year later, when the matter came to light, the survivor’s father was allegedly beaten to death by Sengar’s brother following a brawl between the families over the incident.
Taking cognizance of the father’s death, the court stated that the accused persons did not leave any stone unturned to “terrorise” the woman.
"This is a classic case where we find that the accused persons have not kept a single stone unturned to terrorize not only victim/prosecutrix but her family members and other witnesses. The victim has lost her father merely because cognizance was not taken of her complaint made in August 2017. Had the police taken cognizance of the complaint to the Chief Minister and forwarded to the concerned police station at that stage, perhaps, further damage, including the death of prosecutrix's father would not have taken place,” the bench said in its order.
Lashing out at the administration for its laxity in the case, the court further said, “The doctor did not examine the prosecutrix, nor did the Circle Officer, Shafipur, register the crime, though hand written complaint of the prosecutrix was sent from the office of the Chief Minister. On petty offence, father of prosecutrix was beaten up by the brother, and the goons of Kuldeep Singh and was arrested and in the custody was beaten mercilessly. It further appears that false cases were lodged against the family members.”
The bench of the high court, while ordering Sengar's arrest, also expressed displeasure at the behaviour of the Advocate General appearing for the state.
"The approach of the learned Advocate General not only exudes an unpleasant flavour, but raises doubts about the bonafides of the police authorities at the highest level. We are unable to persuade ourselves in accepting the contention of learned Advocate General that the accused in the circumstances cannot be arrested. In our opinion, arrest of the accused in the present case is necessarily required to safeguard the majesty of law," noted the Chief Justice led bench.
On April 10, post-mortem report of the survivor’s father showed 14 injuries. The Uttar Pradesh government soon ordered the police to hand over the case to the CBI, following which the investigating agency handed arrested the BJP MLA on Friday.
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