After a day and night of high drama, BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was arrested by the CBI late Friday evening in the Unnao rape case that has created political fireworks between the ruling BJP and the opposition. Sengar’s arrest came hours after the Allahabad High Court came down heavily on the Yogi Adityanath government and asked the CBI to arrest him.
While the BJP government is expected to project the arrest as a prompt action in the case to blunt the opposition which has been accusing the the ruling party, both at the state and the Centre, of delayed action in the rape case involving its own MLA, it remains to be seen how the Yogi government is able to come clean on the issue and deliver justice.
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It is believed that the Centre nudged the Yogi government to hand over the case to the CBI as the state witnessed a political uproar over the incident. The state government quickly handed over the case to the CBI. As soon as the central agency took over the investigation, it called Sengar for questioning at 4 am on Friday at its Lucknow office.
The questioning of the BJP MLA went on for 16 hours before he was placed under arrest. Meanwhile, the CBI has spoken to the rape victim and some of the witnesses and family members besides visiting the crime scene .
However, trouble may not be over just yet for Yogi government as sources in the probe agency said the role of the UP police will be examined over allegations that it was unwilling to act against the accused persons and on the charges of beating the father of the rape victim who died of injuries later.
Among the three FIRs taken over by the CBI, the first one pertains to rape and kidnapping of the girl and has been registered on the complaint of the girl's mother. The mother has filed another FIR on the alleged beating of her husband which subsequently resulted in his death. The third FIR was registered against the girl's father on the charges of violation of arms act and indulging in rioting.
What seems to have compounded trouble for the Yogi government is the fact that the Unnao rape case has come simultaneously with the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl at Kathua in Jammu. Allegations are flying high that those protesting in Jammu against filing of charges against the accused have the support of some BJP members. Both the cases have caught the BJP dispensations at the Centre and the states on the backfoot .
The opposition is expected to continue its attack on the BJP as the twin cases have become a political potboiler after Rahul Gandhi took to the streets on Thursday midnight taking out a candle light march to protest against the government and show solidarity with the rape victims' families.