Police probe video of cop being bribed by man close to rape accused MLA
The CBI has formed a 20-member additional special team to probe the Unnao rape survivor’s accident case even as six top forensic experts from Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory have reached the accident site to collect forensic samples from the scene of crime.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday put on hold its order transferring the accident case and also deferred till August 5 the direction for airlifting the victim from Lucknow hospital to AIIMS, here, noting that “there appears to be some hesitation on the part of the family members at this stage”.
Sources said the forensic team took a Maruti Swift car to the accident site to recreate the crime scene. The victim’s Maruti Swift car was hit by a speeding truck from opposite direction killing two of her survivor’s aunts and injuring her lawyer besides her.
The team will assist a five-member team in Lucknow which is already probing the case, a CBI spokesperson said.
In another developmnet, after a video of a policeman posted at Sitapur jail where BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar—who allegedly raped the woman in 2017 when she was a minor — is currently lodged being bribed by a person close to the legislator, the UPpolice ordered a probe on Friday.
“I have not seen the video but it has come to our knowledge. We will get the matter probed and strict action will be taken.
If policemen are found guilty, they will be dismissed,” Director General (DG), Prisons, Anand Kumar said in Lucknow. In the video, a policeman is seen allegedly being bribed by a man wearing kurta-pyjama outside the Sitapur jail.
The man in the video, Rinku Shukla, a panchayat member of Unnao, denied having bribed the policeman to meet Sengar. “It is my habit. I might have given money to him (policeman) for having tea as he was standing there. My intention was not to bribe him. I met Sengar inside the jail 10-15 days ago,” he said.
Asked why he went to meet Sengar in jail, Shukla said, “I met him because he is our MLA. I am not in the BJP.”
The rape survivor is battling for life after a truck rammed into the car in Rae Bareli when she was travelling in with some family members and her lawyer on Sunday. Two of her aunts died in the accident.
Senior advocate V Giri, assisting the court as amicus curiae, told the Bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta that he spoke to the victim’s mother, who expressed that her daughter be treated at the Lucknow hospital for the time being.
Giri told the Bench that he was informed that the victim was still unconscious and on ventilator and her family members were of the view that they should take the call of shifting her to AIIMS if it becomes necessary. He also said the victim’s lawyer is also in a critical stage and his father was indecisive on him being shifted to Delhi.
Taking note of the facts articulated by the amicus curiae, the bench gave liberty to the families of the victim and the lawyer to approach the Supreme Court’s secretary general at any point for shifting the two to AIIMS here.
The apex court also directed shifting of the rape victim’s uncle, Mahesh Singh, immediately, “under armed escort” from Raebareli jail to Tihar and submit compliance report before the court on August 5.
Mahesh Singh’s wife died in the accident on Sunday. He participated in her cremation on Wednesday after the Allahabad High Court granted him one-day parole. He has been convicted and sentenced to 10-year jail term in a 19-year-old case filed by Sengar’s brother, Atul Singh.
Hours after this order was passed, the CBI appeared before the bench and sought postponement of transferring the accident case from Lucknow to Delhi court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta placed before the Court a communication received from the competent authority of the CBI stating that the investigation was in progress and arrested accused persons were required to be produced before a local court for their remand.
He submitted that due to SC’s order on Thursday transferring the five cases, including the accident case connected with the rape case, the Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Lucknow is facing the problem of jurisdiction and competence to pass orders on applications moved by the CBI, and also to pass remand orders from time to time in connection with the investigation as may be required. Accepting the agency’s submission, the bench said that there was a need for modifying the order to the limited extent relating to the accident case.