3 months ago, Unnao victim’s mother filed plea for trial transfer

NEWDELHI: As the Unnao rape survivor battles for life in a Lucknow hospital after a road crash on Sunday, it has emerged that her mother approached the Supreme Court three months ago, seeking the transfer of the trial of the case to Delhi. The apex court is yet to take up the matter for detailed hearings.

In April this year, the mother filed a petition in the Supreme Court, claiming a threat to the family and the possibility of the suspects influencing witnesses, and sought the transfer.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing her daughter’s alleged rape in 2017 (the survivor was a minor at the time) by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar and last year’s death in custody of her father, who was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police in what the family has claimed to be false case. So far, 10 people, including Sengar, his brother and two policemen of the Makhi police

station that registered the case against the father, have been arrested by the CBI and all are in jail at present.

On Sunday, the rape survivor and her lawyer were critically injured and two others (aunts of