New Delhi, August 16
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up next week the Unnao rape case survivor’s plea seeking transfer of a criminal case filed by the father of one of the accused from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh to a court in the national capital.
“List next week,” said a Bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana after advocate Vrinda Grover sought urgent hearing of the fresh plea of the rape survivor.
Shocked at the sequence of events in the Unnao rape case allegedly involving expelled former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the Supreme Court had on August 1, 2019 transferred all five criminal cases connected with the rape incident from a court in Uttar Pradesh to a Special CBI Court in Delhi.
A Delhi court had in December 2019 sentenced Sengar to imprisonment for the remainder of his life for kidnapping and raping the minor girl in Unnao in 2017. It also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on him.
An Unnao court recently issued a non-bailable warrant against the survivor on a criminal complaint of alleged cheating and forgery filed by the father of Shubham Singh, one of the accused being tried in the Unnao rape case in a Delhi court.
The rape survivor’s transfer plea alleged that the “counter judicial proceedings” against her had been initiated in the Unnao court with the ulterior motive of propping up a defence in the sexual assault case.
Sengar’s appeal against the conviction and the life sentence is pending in the Delhi High Court, which recently issued notice to the CBI.
