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Updated: Aug 03, 2019 01:13 IST

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising 20 senior officials, to probe the July 28 accident in Rae Bareli that left the Unnao rape survivor critically injured and two of her aunts, one of whom was a witness in the case, dead. The survivor’s lawyer was also injured in the crash.

The SIT, comprising high ranking officers, including a superintendent of police, assistant superintendent of police, deputy superintendent of police, visited the scene of the crime on Friday.

A six-member Central Forensic Science Laboratory of the CBI, formed to assist the SIT, also left for the location of the accident. “Investigations in the matter will be conducted in the light of the direction of Supreme Court,” an agency spokesperson said.

The move comes a day after the top court ordered that all cases pertaining to the 2017 Unnao gang-rape, in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bangarmau legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar is the main accused, be moved from Lucknow to Delhi, and that the trial be completed within 45 days of commencement.

The top court further gave the central investigating agency a fortnight to complete its probe into the car-truck collision that took place on Sunday.

The SIT on Friday recreated the sequence of events at the spot on Lalganj road in Rae Bareli district, where the Unnao gang-rape survivor’s car was hit by a speeding truck on Sunday, a CBI official said.

A police official privy to the investigation said the SIT, along with forensic experts, reached the accident spot near Ataura police outpost on Lalganj road in the afternoon.

He said the SIT used a truck and car of a make similar to the ones involved in the accident to recreate the scene.The team analysed the speed of the vehicles and the angle at which they collided to determine whether the truck intentionally hit the car.

Prior to the formation of the SIT, a five-member CBI team was in Rae Bareli investigating the matter. The agency lodged an FIR on Tuesday and booked the UP MLA, his brother Manoj Singh Sengar, advocate Awadesh Singh among nine people, for murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation.

The FIR was lodged on the complaint of the survivor’s uncle at the Gurubakshganj police station.

Arun Singh, who has been named in the FIR is the block pramukh of Nawabganj in Unnao and is the son-in-law of Ranvendra Pratap Singh alias Dhunni Singh, an MLA from Fathepur. The legislator holds independent charge of the ministries of agriculture, agriculture education and research.

A speeding truck had hit the rape survivor’s car on Sunday killing two of her aunts and left her and her lawyer critically injured.

The 19-year-old survivor had accused Sengar of raping her in 2017, when she was a minor.

Police probe ‘bribe’ video

The Uttar Pradesh police ordered a probe on Friday after a policeman posted at the Sitapur jail, where rape accused MLA Kuldeep Sengar is lodged, was seen in a video allegedly being bribed by a person considered close to the legislator.

“I have not seen the video but it has come to our knowledge. We will get the matter probed and strict action will be taken. If policemen are found guilty, they will be dismissed,” Director General (DG), Prisons, Anand Kumar said here.

In the video, the policeman is seen allegedly being bribed by a man. The man in the video, Rinku Shukla, a panchayat member of Unnao, told reporters that he was not bribing the policeman to meet Sengar, who has been in jail since 2018.

“It is my habit. I might have given money to him (policeman) for having tea as he was standing there. My intention was not to bribe him. I met Sengar inside the jail 10-15 days ago,” he said.

In another part of the video, a motorcycle-borne man is heard asking someone to arrange a meeting with the MLA and being told “there is pressure”.

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