BJP MLA SENGAR ARRESTED OVER UNNAO RAPE, GRILLED BY CBI

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

In a statement, the agency said it had lodged three separate first information reports (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. 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.