‘How can we trust CBI,’ ask Unnao rape case survivor, her mother as agency moves SC against Sengar bail

Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) moved the Supreme Court challenging former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s bail in Unnao rape case following massive public outrage, the victim and her mother has questioned the probe agency’s handling of the case, alleging that the Investigation Officer (IO) was in touch with the daughter of the accused.

Sengar, who was convicted in the rape case and sentenced to life imprisonment, was allowed to walk out of jail after Delhi High Court suspended his sentence and granted him bail.

Advertisement

“Had the CBI stood with my lawyer, we wouldn’t have had to see this day. We would have won, and they would have lost,” the survivor, who reached the CBI office, along with her mother and lawyer Mehmood Pracha, said.

She also levelled serious allegations of bribery against the high court judge who passed the order granting relief to Sengar. “This is an injustice that one family was intimidated while the other person was given a free pass… This means that the judge has taken so much money that there is no limit. Call the judge, I will confront him. This is my right.”

Her mother also raised serious questions over the CBI’s handling of the case. She said that they will only trust the CBI when the agency will meet them.

“If CBI meets us, only then will we trust them. How can we trust them otherwise… We have not discussed CBI… We have only said that IO met them. He was talking to Kuldeep Sengar’s daughter. When we asked him whether he knew the victim, he said, why would I know her. He said this in a crowded court…,” she claimed.

On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court had ordered to suspend the life sentence awarded to Sengar in the rape case and granted him bail.

Sengar was convicted by a trial court in 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of a minor in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. He filed an appeal against the conviction before the Delhi HC in Janyuar 2020 and a petition for suspension of sentence in March 2022 before the Delhi HC.