'Will you arrest accused MLA'

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday on the Unnao rape incident, asking it whether it proposes to arrest accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar.

A bench of Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Suneet Kumar, taking cognisance of the gangrape case on a letter to the court by senior lawyer Gopal Swaroop Chaturvedi, heard the matter in detail and will pronounce its order tomorrow.

The court also questioned the conduct of the police in the case, saying whom will a victim approach to register a complaint.

Advocate General Raghvendra Singh, who was present in the court on its direction, informed the bench that on August 17, 2017, an application was sent to the Chief Minister's Office in which allegations of rape was made against the MLA.

The application was forwarded to officers concerned in Unnao to take appropriate action, he said.

To this, the bench questioned what has been done in the case and whether any arrests have been made so far.

Singh replied that three of the accused have been arrested, including the MLA's brother.

The court then asked the Advocate General whether the government proposes to arrest Sengar.

Singh said that he was not in a position to make any statement in this regard and police will proceed in accordance with law only after recording statements of the complainant and witnesses.

The court referred to the SIT report and said, "according to it, medical officers and police officers, all were hand in glove with the accused to save them and you acted on this report against those officers but for arresting rape accused you need to do further investigation."

"Police was not ready to register FIR of the minor rape victim. In spite of the SIT report, you are repeating that we can only take any action after further investigation, if this is the conduct of the police in state, whom will a victim approach to register a complaint. If this is the stand you are repeatedly taking, then we will be forced to observe in our order that law and order has collapsed in the state'," it said.

According to Chaturvedi, the SIT conducted preliminary investigation and then filed a report after which an FIR was registered and still the state government wants to conduct further probe before arresting the accused MLA.

Chaturvedi has demanded a court-monitored investigation of the incident and also death of the victim's father in judicial custody.