Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

BJP MLA SENGAR ARRESTED OVER UNNAO RAPE, GRILLED BY CBI

- Jitendra Sarin and Rohit K Singh

ALLAHABAD/LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar was arrested on Friday night after Central Bureau of Investigat­ion (CBI) officials questioned him for 16 hours in Lucknow and the Allahabad high court directed the agency to arrest the politician accused of raping a teenager in Unnao last year.

A senior CBI official said the MLA for Bangarmau in UP’S Unnao district was picked up from a house in Lucknow’s Indira Nagar and taken to the agency’s office in Hazratganj at 4am. He was questioned until his arrest at night and he could be produced in court on Saturday. A CBI team also questioned the teenager and her family.

The agency said it had lodged three separate FIR in connection with the Unnao rape, and the death of the rape survivor’s 55-year-old father, allegedly after he was assaulted by the MLA’S brother.

“The first FIR is related to allegation­s of rape on the MLA and a woman, the second is of the June 2017 event in which the teenager’s family accused four people of kidnapping and raping her,” it said. SINGAPORE: India will record “high growth rates for a long time” and will focus on its citizens’ “dignity and quality of life”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech read out on his behalf at the Mint Asia-hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Singapore on Friday. At the same event, on the theme ‘Road Ahead for Asia,’ Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugara­tnam indicated that India was on the right trajectory but that it needs to do more in terms of its pace and direction and to make a decisive shift in strategy to escalate growth.

“A successful and prosperous India will be an engine for the global economy and a force of good for the world. Because, the ideals of democracy that define our nation also shape the way we engage Asia and the world,” Modi said as he highlighte­d the continent’s contributi­on to global developmen­t.

“The confidence and energy of our people and the strong fundamenta­ls of our economy tells us that India will sustain high growth rates for a long time. Digital revolution and our focus on inclusion and every citizen’s dignity and quality of life gives us the strength of belief and confidence in our future,” he said.

“Asia’s re-emergence and rise are the greatest phenomena of our age of multiple transition­s… This moment of flux in Asia provides us all a huge opportunit­y, indeed a great responsibi­lity, to chart a steady course towards a cooperativ­e, inclusive and peaceful future,” he said.

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