Father of woman who accused BJP MLA of rape dies

KANPUR: The father of an 18-yearold woman allegedly raped by a Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh died on Monday, hours after he collapsed in prison where he had been detained after being assaulted by men purportedly connected to the MLA.

The state government announced a magisterial investigation after the alleged rape victim said her father had been murdered in prison. The victim had on Sunday attempted suicide in front of chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence, alleging inaction on the part of police in filing a case against the BJP member.

“He was killed at the behest of the BJP MLA inside the jail,” the woman told reporters on Monday. “We were getting threats and they killed my father”. The MLA was identified as Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the representative from Unnao’s Bangarmau constituency.

He and his aides were accused of rape by the woman last year, but he has not been formally named by police in the rape case. Sengar rejected the charge as a conspiracy by opponents and said the complainant belonged to a “low class”, even as six policemen were suspended and Adityanath assured whosoever is guilty will not be spared. Doctors who examined the woman’s father after he spent two days in police custody over an Arms Act case noted 19 injury marks, according to people who were present at the hospital during the examination on April 5. He was not taken to a hospital until Sunday evening when he became seriously ill.

The woman alleged that when the family returned to Unnao from Delhi earlier this month to file a petition for Sengar to be named in the rape case, his brother Atul Singh and his aides assaulted her father.