New Delhi: A letter by a teen rape survivor’s family in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao alleging grave danger to them will be taken up by the Supreme Court on Thursday, three days after the girl was critically wounded in a car crash that she alleges was planned by the man she has accused, jailed BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Sengar.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had asked for a report on the letter sent on July 12, now more significant after the accident on Sunday that involved a speeding truck with its number plate wiped.
The Supreme Court has also asked for a status report on the case from its Secretary General and will take it up on Thursday.
The Chief Justice said he had been informed about the family’s letter on Tuesday. “This morning I read in the papers that the Unnao victim had written to the Supreme Court. I was informed about the letter yesterday. I have not yet seen the letter. It is yet to be placed before me.”
Chief Justice Gogoi also said “unfortunately, the letter is yet to see the light of the day and newspapers flashed the news as if I have read it…We try to do something constructive in the midst of this highly destructive volatile environment and this happens.”
The court responded after senior lawyer V Giri asked for urgent listing of the cases under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) and said there had been “serious developments” in one of the cases.
The lawyer is assisting the top court in POCSO cases. Giri mentioned the Unnao case on Wednesday, which led to the Chief Justice referring to the teen rape survivor’s letter.
On Sunday, the teen rape survivor, her two aunts and her lawyer were travelling from Unnao to Raebareli when a truck with its number plate wiped rammed their car. The driver of the truck and its owner have been arrested.
The CBI is investigating the incident. A First Information Report (FIR) lodged a day after the car crash named Kuldeep Sengar, a four-time BJP legislator, his brother Manoj Singh Sengar and eight others.
The teen’s letter reportedly related several incidents between July 7 and 8, when some people allegedly associated with Sengar threatened the survivor’s family. The letter also requested the court to ask the police to file a case against the people who allegedly tried to intimidate them.
Sengar is accused by the teen of sexually assaulting her when she went to his Unnao home for a job in 2017. He was arrested in April last year, days after the girl threatened to set herself ablaze in front of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s home in Lucknow if the police didn’t file her complaint.
The teen apparently took to the desperate act after her father was thrashed by Sengar’s brother and then arrested in a badly wounded state on charges of carrying weapons. The father died in custody the day after she went public, provoking massive public outrage.
