Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Unnao who is accused of raping an 18-year-old girl when she was a minor, was on Saturday sent to seven days CBI custody by a special CBI court in Lucknow.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wanted to interrogate Sengar for 14 days but the court granted the probe agency only a week-long remand.
Even though the heat on him continued to grow, Sengar continued to claim innocence. Addressing media persons before he was presented in the court, Sengar spoke about his faith in God and judiciary.
The strongman from Unnao’s Bangarmau, from where he won in the 2017 legislative elections, Sengar is also accused of conspiring to kill the victim’s father, who died of injuries after he was beaten brutally in police custody by Sengar’s brother and some aides.
The CBI detained the MLA at around 5 am on Friday and questioned him for 16 hours at the agency’s office on Naval Kishore Road in Lucknow.
He was arrested the same day after the Allahabad High Court ordered said that Sengar was “influencing” the law and order machinery after pulling up the state government a day before for the delay in action against the lawmaker.
Read More: CBI arrests BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar
An FIR was registered against Sengar in Makhi police station on Thursday only after orders came from the UP government. He was charged under sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (abduction of woman), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The state government also ordered the handing over of the twin cases of rape and the custodial death of the victim’s father to the CBI.
The case was later handed over to the CBI. The elite probe agency has filed three separate cases into the alleged rape and incidents following it.
On Saturday, the CBI got Sengar’s medical examination done and also arrested a woman identified as Shashi Singh, who is accused of taking the girl to the legislator.
The victim, along with her mother and uncle, were brought to Lucknow under tight security in the morning for tests at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that no criminal will be spared and justice will be done to daughters of the nation.
The victim thanked the media and the CBI for taking up her battle and said that the PM’s words have raised her hopes of justice.
Facing flak over the delay in taking action against the MLA in the case from 2017, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his government will not deviate from its zero-tolerance policy on crime and that it would firmly deal with criminals, no matter how influential they might be.
The case grabbed the national attention after the victim tried to set herself ablaze outside Adityanath’s residence last Sunday. Later on Sunday, her father was picked up by the police and allegedly beaten up in custody by the MLA’s brother Atul Singh and his aides, following which he died in hospital.
(With inputs from agencies.)