Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today pulled up the ruling BJP for its alleged reluctance in taking action against Kuldeep Sengar, an Uttar Pradesh lawmaker accused in the Unnao sexual assault case, despite the police naming him as an accused in a road accident that ended up hospitalising the rape survivor and killing two others on Sunday.
“What is the BJP waiting for? Why has this man not been expelled from their party even when his name is in the latest FIR in the Unnao rape case?” tweeted Priyanka Gandhi, who has been spearheading the attack on Kuldeep Sengar ever since the accident occurred. The post was hashtagged BJPSackSengar.
The family, all residents of Unnao, were on their way to the district jail in Rae Bareli when their car suffered a head-on collision with a truck that witnesses said was speeding. While the driver and owner of the truck have been arrested, a murder case was filed against Kuldeep Sengar following claims that it was an “orchestrated” accident. Even West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cited the accident to claim that the central government was targeting states like hers while overlooking “blatant” incidents such as these in BJP-ruled ones.
Priyanka Gandhi has been targeting Uttar Pradesh’s BJP government since early today.
“So a woman is allegedly raped by a BJP MLA. Her father is beaten up and dies in custody. A key witness dies mysteriously last year. Now her aunt, who was also a witness, is killed and her lawyer is critically injured in an accident caused by a truck with blackened number plates,” she tweeted this afternoon, hinting that something suspicious was afoot in the case.
The Congress leader questioned the logic behind the BJP running the ‘Fear-Free Uttar Pradesh’ campaign when party lawmakers have a “free run of the land” despite being accused of heinous crimes. “She herself lies grievously wounded in hospital from the same accident. The accused continues as a BJP legislator, and the BJP State Government has the audacity to run a ‘Fear-Free Uttar Pradesh’ campaign???” Priyanka Gandhi said in another tweet, asking if the ruling party has “no moral duty towards its citizens anymore, or was that never on its agenda anyway”?
The Unnao case first came to light last year, when the rape survivor and her mother allegedly attempted to set themselves on fire in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence to protest against BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Sengar — who she accused of sexually assaulting her in 2017. In the days that followed, her father died in police custody after he was allegedly attacked by a group led by the lawmaker’s brother and then arrested on charges of illegal arms possession.
