7-member CBI team in Unnao to probe rape case involving BJP MLA

LUCKNOW: A seven-member Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Tuesday reached Makhi police station in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao in connection with the investigation in the alleged gangrape of a 17-year-old girl by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and his associates.

Earlier in the day, the CBI registered a fourth case in the matter involving BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. In the new case, Shubham Singh, son of Shashi Singh who was accused of taking the alleged victim to the spot of the crime, has been included as an accused.

On Monday, Shashi Singh, who is believed to be a close aide of Kuldeep Singh Sengar, was sent to four-day police custody.

Last week, Shashi Singh had claimed that the alleged victim in the Unnao rape case had nine months back framed her son Shubham in a false rape case for which he even had to serve a jail term.

Sengar was also taken into seven-day police custody last week, after a 17-hour interrogation session. It came after the Allahabad High Court rapped the police for its inaction against the BJP lawmaker who was influencing the "law-and-order machinery".

The BJP MLA came under fire after an 18-year-old woman alleged that Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his associates raped her in June 2017 and that authorities had refused to register her complaint.

The teen survivor also claimed that the BJP lawmaker is behind the alleged custodial death of her father. He father, aged around 50, was rushed to a hospital from the district jail on Monday night and died during treatment. He had been arrested on April 5 under the Arms Act.