A man claiming to be a witness of the Rae Bareli accident involving the Unnao rape survivor, has alleged that an attempt was made on his life after his car was hit by a truck, the police said.
Awadhesh Pratap Singh, a resident of village Gaura-Katherwa in Unnao, says the attack followed the same pattern of a truck hitting a car on the highway, reversing and speeding in for a second hit, The Telegraph reported. Awadhesh has previously said that he had been threatened multiple times before as well, for his police statement about the June 28 collision and that he had informed the police on two occasions about the same.
“On Friday, at around 3 pm he was going towards Unnao with two people in a car. Their vehicle had overtaken a truck during which their car was touched by the truck. He filed a complaint- stating that he is the prime witness of the Raebareli accident case and there has been an attempt to murder him (mere uparjaanlewahamla karaya gayahai),” said MP Verma, Unnao’s senior police official.
Awadhesh, former Pramukh of Nawabganj block, has told police he had seen the June 28 attempt on the 19-year-old rape complainant that critically injured her and her lawyer and killed two of her aunts. He said he had witnessed the incident when he was standing by the roadside in the Rae Bareli village of AtauraBujurg, where he was visiting relatives, when he saw the truck swerve to the right, ram the victims’ car, reverse and ram it again.
Regarding the incident that took place with him, he said he was returning home from Lucknow after business. With him was Rajesh Kumar, a family friend of the rape complainant whom he had gotten to know in connection with the court cases. Awadhesh had offered to make a small detour and drop Rajesh home, a resident of Arjunamau village, but it is unclear why he hadn’t done so before entering Unnao.
“My companion (Rajesh), who was driving, lost control and the car struck the iron rails of the road divider. The truck reversed a few meters and sped at us again but we opened the doors and ran away unhurt,” police quoted from Awadhesh’s complaint.
Ajay Rai Verma, Ajgain station house officer, said: “The driver ran away, leaving the truck behind. We have registered a case.” An FIR has been registered against the truck driver under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
He said the truck was carrying a fake number plate but was confident that the police would soon identify its owner and catch the driver.
The Unnao case
A 17-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh went missing two years ago on June 11, 2017. Nine days after the family filed a missing complaint, the girl escaped and alleged that she was raped twice, first by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar who had met her on the pretext of providing her a job, and then again kidnapped and gang-raped for a week by his henchmen at the behest of Sengar’s brother Atul Singh.
After she tried to immolate herself outside the UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s office, the incident came to light. Her father was beaten up and arrested under the Arms Act on the behest of Sengar. He later died in police custody.
On April 12, 2018 a case was registered against Sengar and the case was transferred to the CBI. Prior to this the victim and her family had to face humiliation where under the garb of protection they were confined to a hotel room, without water or electricity.
In August 2018, a key witness in the murder of the survivor’s father, Yunus, died under suspicious circumstances and was buried the same evening without a post-mortem.
In December 2018, an FIR was registered against the survivor and her family for submitting forged documents as proof that she was a minor during the rape.
On July 04, 2019, the survivor’s uncle was sentenced to ten years in jail for a two-decade-old attempt to murder case filed by Atul Singh.
On July 28, two years after the incident took place, the survivor’s car was hit by a truck. The registration plate of the truck was covered in grease. The survivor and her lawyer suffered severe injuries and two of her aunts died in the accident.
She was airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow and brought to the AIIMS for better care. Even as the survivor and the lawyer were battling for their lives, the survivor’s mother had alleged the accident to be a ‘conspiracy’. On July 29, 2019 a fresh FIR was lodged against BJP MLA Sengar along with 29 others for criminal conspiracy to kill the survivor and eye-witness in a car accident.
After taking cognizance of the letter, the rape survivor had written to the Supreme Court (SC) just days before the accident expressing danger and threat to her life, the SC directed the transfer of all the cases registered in connection with the incident to the CBI in Delhi.
The central investigating agency filed a chargesheet in the case on October 12 dropping the murder charge against BJP MLA Sengar and his aides in connection with the road accident. After being discharged from the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi last month, the victim along with her family is under Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) security here on the directions of the apex court.
Related:
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Key witness in Unnao case dies abruptly, is buried without post-mortem
Unnao residents hold audacious rally supporting BJP MLA accused of rape