Unnao: CBI searches Sengar's home; questions him in jail

New Delhi: The CBI on Sunday raided Unnao rape accused MLA, Kuldeep Singh Sengar's premises in Uttar Pradesh in addition to conducting searches at premises related to the other accused in the rape victim's accident investigation.

Officials from the special CBI team formed to probe the case, conducted searches at four districts in the state, including Unnao, Lucknow, Banda, and Fatehpur, according to sources in the know.

Further, CBI officials also visited the Sitapur jail, where the expelled BJP MLA is currently lodged, to question him in connection with the case. Investigators also questioned the driver and cleaner of the truck that hit the teenager's car.

The 19-year-old rape survivor was travelling in a car with her lawyer and family, when a truck hit them in a head-on collision, killing her two aunts and leaving her and her lawyer in critical condition. The truck's number plates were blackened.

Sources here added that people who visited Sengar in jail in the days before the accident are also being examined. Central Bureau of Investigation officials had on Saturday also visited Sitapur jail to speak to officials there and examine visitor logs. In the meantime, the Unnao cases are set to begin trial on Monday in the court of Judge Dharmesh Sharma at Tis Hazari here. The court has issued a production warrant for Sengar and his associate Shashi Singh to be produced before it. Other accused in the case are to be produced on Tuesday.

The central probe agency had filed a chargesheet last July against Sengar and Singh for raping the teenager and another one against the MLA's brother, Atul Sengar for the murder of the rape victim's father, who was killed in custody of UP Police.

The Supreme Court had last week taken suo moto cognizance of the Unnao rape victim's accident and ordered that the trial be moved to a Delhi court, which is to finish hearing the trial on a day-to-day basis within 45 days.

In the same order, the Apex court had asked the CBI to complete the probe in the rape victim's accident and file a chargesheet by Aug 14. The accident case will remain with a Lucknow court, till the central agency completes its probe.

Following this, the CBI has made extensive efforts to finish the investigation in the prescribed time. The agency constituted an additional special team of around 20, comprising of officers from the sub-inspector level to the Superintendent of Police level. According to officials, this team is assisting the five-member team from Lucknow that was already probing the case.

In addition to this, a six-member team of "top experts" of different fields from the CBI's Central Forensic Science Laboratories are also in UP helping with the investigation.

While the rape victim herself remains in critical, having recently developed pneumonia her lawyer is now able to breathe without a ventilator. Both are being treated at the KGMU Hospital in Lucknow.

The Apex court had suggested that both the rape victim and her lawyer could be airlifted to AIIMS here if their families wanted, provided their medical condition allowed.