In midnight drama, Unnao BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Sengar meets police, says have done no wrong
The 18-year-old victim, who has alleged rape by Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, on Wednesday also accused the district administration of keeping her and her family in confinement.
Uttar Pradesh BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar made a midnight visit to the Lucknow police on Wednesday as pressure mounted for his arrest over allegations that he raped a teenager last year and that his brother fatally assaulted the girl’s father to force the family into dropping the case.
But instead of arresting him, as media reports suggested prior to his visit, a policeman at the office of the senior superintendent told Sengar that he will be contacted if needed.
“When there is an arrest warrant, call me,” Sengar was heard telling the police, minutes after he insisted to reporters that he was being framed.
“I just came here to prove that I have done no wrong and would be here anytime the police wants me,” he told reporters as he was leaving.
The rape and the father’s death triggered widespread anger and strong criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party state government led by Yogi Adityanath, who held a meeting with party boss Amit Shah in Lucknow hours earlier.
Late evening, a special team of state police also submitted a report.
On Wednesday, the Allahabad high court took cognisance of the case and asked the state government for a response.
Earlier in the day, the 18-year-old woman said that she and her family had been placed under “house arrest” and told a social worker she met that Sengar had also sexually harassed other girls.
“We are not allowed to move out, we are constantly guarded…they want us to break down,” the woman told media. The administration denied the charges and said the family had been put up in a local hotel and several police personnel deputed for their security.
The woman has accused Sengar’s brother Atul of attacking her father, who was later arrested for allegedly illegally possessing firearms, and died in judicial custody.
The alleged rape took place on July 4 last year but the MLA has not been formally named in the investigation. A day before the girl’s father died, she attempted to commit suicide in front of CM Adityanath’s residence to force the police to prosecute the MLA.
“Kuldeep Sengar raped me at his house, he promised me a job then and threatened to kill my family,” the woman told media. “He didn’t allow us to study, kept my family under his thumb.”
An activist with the Left-affiliated All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Madhu Garg, who met the woman for an hour, said the victim had told her that Sengar would lock female students of a school he owned, and sexually harassed them. “This created fear among the girls. Many stopped going to school. Even this girl dropped out after class 8,” said Garg.
Sengar’s wife, who met the Uttar Pradesh additional director general of police on Wednesday, claimed he was being framed and demanded a narco-analysis test.
“It is a conspiracy to end his political career,” she told media in Lucknow. She was accompanied by BJP member of the legislative assembly (MLA) Shailesh Kumar Singh ‘Shailu’, who also led five other party legislatorst o meet chief minister Yogi Adityanath in support of Sengar .“There is a feeling that the MLA is being framed,” he said.
But the high court took cognizance of a letter written by a senior advocate, citing a Hindustan Times report, and converted it to a public interest litigation. The next hearing of the case is on Thursday and the HC asked the advocate general or one of the additional advocate generals to remain present during the hearing and apprise the court of the case and action taken.
“We fail to understand why the investigating agency instead of arresting accused persons, arrested complainant, in connection with this case,” the HC bench of chief justice DB Bhosale and justice Suneet Kumar observed, referring to the arrest of the woman’s father.
Recommended Topics