Netas, bureaucrats, cops on CBI radar in Unnao case

LUCKNOW: High-profile politicians, police officers and bureaucrats are on the radar of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the Unnao rape case, those privy to the investigation said on Sunday.

The rape survivor told the CBI that BJP MLA from Bangarmau Kuldeep Singh Sengar raped her on June 4, 2017. She lodged a complaint at the Makhi police station in Unnao district but no action was taken by the police, she told CBI. When the MLA threatened her, she filed a complaint against him with chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s office on August 17, 2017, she said, according to those familiar with the investigation.

The CM’S office took cognisance of her complaint and a special secretary in the CM’S office directed the Unnao police to register an FIR and take action against the accused.

Sources said the CBI was probing under whose pressure the Unnao police ignored the directions of the chief minister’s office to lodge a complaint and take action against the MLA. The CBI is collecting the call detail records (CDR) of the MLA’S mobile phone, sources said.

The agency has recorded the statement of the MLA’S associates in Lucknow and Unnao.

Preliminary investigation indicated that several senior leaders of the ruling party and MLAS pressured the police to ignore the victim’s complaint. A senior leader called the Unnao SP, directing him not to take action, they said.

The CBI is likely to summon these leaders. After getting Sengar on seven-day remand on Saturday, agency officials questioned him regarding the politicians and officers who reportedly assisted him.

“In view of his political clout in Unnao, politicians supported him, cutting across party lines,” said a CBI officer. The Allahabad high court on Friday lambasted the police machinery for being under the influence of the MLA. The court observed that police did not register the complaint of the rape survivor and doctors did not examine her even after directions from the CM’S office.

CO-ACCUSED GETS FOUR-DAY REMAND

LUCKNOW: Co-accused in the Unnao rape case, Shashi Singh, was sent to four-day CBI custody on Sunday. Additional chief judicial magistrate Sunil Kumar gave the order at a trial where no lawyer came to represent Shashi Singh who is facing charges under the Pocso Act. The CBI had arrested her on Saturday. The mother of the survivor, accused Singh of taking her daughter to Sengar’s residence, where the girl was allegedly raped. Singh is also accused of keeping watch outside the room when Sengar was raping the girl.