india

Updated: Aug 03, 2019 01:01 IST

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that the case pertaining to the Unnao rape survivor’s accident will continue to be heard in a Central Bureau of Investigation court in Lucknow for another 15 days, on the urging of the investigating agency.

The 19-year-old survivor, who accused Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Uttar Pradesh Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her in 2017, is battling for life after a truck rammed into the car she was travelling in with her aunts and her lawyer on July 28. Both her aunts died in the accident, and her lawyer was critically injured.

Her family alleges that the collision was a deliberate attempt to kill her by those close to the MLA.

On Thursday, the apex court had ordered the transfer of all five cases linked to the 2017 Unnao gang-rape, including the accident that took place in Rae Bareli on Sunday, to the court of a District Judge in New Delhi. It also ordered that the trial for all cases be completed within 45 days of commencement.

On Friday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the CBI told the apex court that the accused —the truck’s driver Ashish Kumar Pal and cleaner Mohan —were to be presented before a Judicial Magistrate in Lucknow. “Therefore, the court must not transfer the accident case to Delhi till probe is complete,” he said.

The court accepted the CBI request not to transfer the accident case till the hearing on the remand proceedings of the accused are completed to avoid problems of jurisdiction that the CBI court may face following the transfer of cases to Delhi.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose also held that the Unnao rape victim’s family, which wants her to be treated in Lucknow at the moment given her critical condition, is at liberty to take a call on shifting her to AIIMS here.

Advocate RK Reddy, lawyer for the survivor and her family, said the girl’s mother was reluctant to airlift her daughter for now. “She is apprehensive because the girl continues to be unconscious and the family has no information regarding her medical condition,” Reddy said.

The lawyer’s father was indecisive on him being shifted to Delhi, the Supreme Court was informed. Though the lawyer has been taken off the ventilator, his condition is still critical.

The bench gave liberty to the family of the victim and the lawyer to approach the Supreme Court’s secretary general at any point for shifting them to AIIMS in Delhi.

The bench also ordered that the survivor’s paternal uncle, who is in jail in Rae Bareli, be moved to Delhi’s Tihar jail, due to “security reasons”.

Chief Justice Gogoi had on Wednesday taken suo moto cognisance of a letter written by the rape survivor’s family alleging threats from Sengar and his associates.

The bench said it will take up the matter on Monday, the next date fixed for hearing.

Sengar, a four-time legislator who represents Bangermau in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, is the main accused in the rape case and is lodged in jail since April, 2018.

Besides the main rape case and the accident case, the three other matters which were transferred to the national capital are the FIR which was lodged against victim’s father under Arms Act, his custodial death and the gang rape of the victim.

Judicial custody for truck driver, cleaner

The special judicial magistrate of the CBI court Anuradha Shukla on Friday ordered seven-day judicial custody for driver Ashish Kumar Pal and cleaner Mohan of the truck that rammed into a car in Rae Bareli on Sunday, seriously injuring the Unnao rape survivor and her lawyer and killing her two aunts. The court will resume hearing on Saturday for police custody remand of the driver and cleaner. The court amended its transit remand order, given earlier, for the driver and cleaner after the CBI’s public prosecutor informed it about the Supreme Court’s latest order staying transfer of the Rae Bareli accident case to New Delhi.