The woman from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, who had accused BJP leader and MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her, was seriously injured after the car she was travelling in was hit by a truck.
Her mother and aunt, who were travelling with her, both died in the accident, reports said. Several reports had it that her lawyer, Mahendra Singh, had also died. However, ANI has quoted his junior associate Vimal Kumar Yadav as having said Singh is critical.
Locals quickly reached the site of the accident and were able to pull out all the occupants from inside the mangled vehicle. The woman was travelling from Unnao to the Rae Bareli district jail to meet her uncle Mahesh Singh, who is imprisoned there in a separate case. “The incident took place on the road that connects Rae Bareli to the Fatehpur district,” chief of district police Sunil Kumar Singh said.
Singh ruled out any conspiracy based on prima facie evidence. The woman’s family has accused Sengar of planning the attack. While Sengar has been in prison since 2018, he is known to be influential.
ANI has reported Unnao SP MK Verma as having noted that security guards deployed to protect the women were not present with her when the accident occurred.
In June 2017, two months after the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, the women who was then 17 years old had alleged that she had been kidnapped when she went looking for a job and was gangraped for more than a week by Sengar and his accomplices, including his brother Atul Singh.
However, the case registered by the Unnao police did not name the MLA as an accused.
In a battle for justice that got increasingly uphill, the survivor wrote repeatedly to the Chief Minister’s office and senior police officers in the State demanding that rape charges be framed against Sengar.