No matter how influential, the accused will not be spared: UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Unnao rape case

Rape accused BJP MLA Sengar was detained on Friday morning by the CBI for questioning in connection with the alleged gangrape case.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday assured that strict action will be taken against the accused in the alleged Unnao gangrape case, no matter how influential the person is. Claiming that his government will not compromise on the case, he said: "The investigation has been handed over to the CBI. I believe the CBI would have arrested the MLA also. Our government will not compromise on this, no matter how influential the accused is, he will not be spared." Adityanath had earlier also said that no one found guilty in the case would be spared. 

His comments come a day after a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Uttar Pradesh had claimed that the Chief Minister had decided to arrest rape accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar but his decision was changed after the intervention of a 'prominent person'. Senior party leader and former state minister IP Singh had claimed: "Yogi Adityanath had taken the decision to arrest Kuldeep Sengar. He was to be arrested from the CM office. The CM had also decided to expel two MLAs from Unnao. But he got a call from a prominent person and the decision got deferred. The party has to suffer the consequence of this decision." 

Sengar was on Friday morning detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning in connection with the alleged gangrape case. However, he has claimed innocence adding that the allegations levelled against him are false. 

The Allahabad High Court has already appointed an amicus curiae and directed the Yogi Adityanath government to file all details related to the case. While scheduling the case to be heard on Friday, the HC had on Thursday slammed the police for the way it acted in dealing with the complaint made by the rape survivor.

"Police was not ready to register FIR of the minor rape victim. In spite of the SIT report, you are repeating that you can only take any action after further investigation," the court said. "If this is the conduct of the police in the state, whom will a victim approach to register a complaint? If this is the stand you are repeatedly taking, then we will be forced to observe in our order that 'law and order has collapsed in the state'."

The teen, from Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, had accused the MLA and his associates of raping her in June 2017. The family of the victim had also alleged that the accused MLA's brother, Atul Singh Sengar, had thrashed the victim's father on April 3 for refusing to withdraw the FIR over the rape. On April 9, the victim's father died in police custody. Up to six police personnel have also suspended for allegedly beating up the victim's father. 

The victim's father died just a day after the rape victim, along with her family members, tried to commit suicide in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in Lucknow on April 8. The victim's father was thereafter taken into police custody from the location. However, on April 9, he was admitted to a hospital after complaining about abdominal pain and vomiting and subsequently died there.