New Delhi: Taking cognizance of Unnao rape victim's letter to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from its secretary-general as to why it had not been brought to his notice.
In her letter to the CJI, the 19-year-old woman had expressed apprehension of threat to her life.
"Unfortunately, the letter is yet to see the light of the day and yet the newspapers flashed it as if I have read the letter," Justice Gogoi said. "We will do something about this highly volatile situation," the bench added.
Curiously, the court that was supposed to be designated for the Unnao cases in Lucknow has disappeared from official records. The Central Bureau of Investigation had filed two chargesheet; one against MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar for the teenager's rape and one against his brother for the murder of the rape victim's father, who was allegedly killed in custody.
The CBI had filed the chargesheet in Special Court, CBI court number 4 in Lucknow in July last year, of which the court had taken cognizance. However, Judge Vatsal Srivastava of the same court was transferred out on April 15 and the court itself has seemingly disappeared from the list of Special CBI courts on the Allahabad High Court website, leaving no designated court for the Unnao cases.
Moreover, the Allahabad High Court had in May this year stopped monitoring the case, based on incorrect information that CBI's probe had been completed and that trial was underway; when in fact, the court where the chargesheet was filed did not even exist at the time.
The observations came when senior advocate V Giri, who is assisting the court in the suo motu case on an alarming rise in child rapes, sought urgent hearing of the Unnao rape case. The apex also asked the Uttar Pradesh authorities to file a status report by Thursday on the accident of the Unnao rape case victim. It listed the matter for hearing on Thursday.
The 19-year-old woman, who was allegedly raped two years ago by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar at his residence in Unnao, was critically injured in a car crash on Sunday.
A car in which the Unnao rape survivor, her family and lawyer were travelling was hit by an over-speeding truck in Raebareli on Sunday, killing two members, leaving her and the advocate critically injured. The truck's number plates were blackened.
Meanwhile, taking over the accident investigation, the CBI has booked Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and nine others on murder charges.
A team from the agency reached the accident site in the Gurubakshganj area of Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli district, to start the probe. Sources in the know said that investigators held discussions with forensic experts and also met some eyewitnesses to the accident.
Since last July, the rape victim and her family had lodged at least 25 complaints with the Unnao police authorities against Sengar and his men for threatening and trying to intimidate them so that they would not appear as witnesses in CBI's cases against Sengar. However, the Unnao SP said that he did not get time to study all of them as he was posted here just five months ago. See inside