Amid tight security, the CBI produced the Unnao rape case accused, BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, in the CBI court in Lucknow around 4pm on Saturday. According to sources, the CBI has urged the court to grant 14-day remand for the accused, which was not opposed by Sengar's lawyer.
However, the court sent Sengar to seven days CBI custody. The order of the court effectively means that now Sengar will have to spend the coming week in jail if he fails to move a higher court or secure bail from a higher court. Sengar is a BJP MLA from Bangermau, Unnao. Meanwhile, the CBI on Saturday also took into custody Sashi Singh, an aide of Sengar. Sashi is accused of taking the victim to Sengar after which the latter raped her.
Sengar, while being taken to the court, said he has full faith in the judicial system of the country and he will get justice.
On Saturday morning, the CBI team probing the matter had brought the victim to Lucknow for a medical examination, which was done at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital; subsequently, the sleuths took the victim to the CBI office, where she confronted the accused. The officers investigating the matter recorded the statement of the victim.
Meanwhile, the CBI continued its interrogation on Saturday, after it took the accused into custody on Friday morning. He was made to face the police of Makhi police station, who were initially handling the matter. Some personnel of the station have been suspended for their dubious role in probing the case and the CBI is also investigating them. The CBI asked around 25 questions to Sengar pertaining to the case and during interrogation, Sengar, according to sources, fumbled many times while answering the questions.
Earlier this week, the Unnao case took a decisive turn, after the Allahabad High Court took cognisance of the case and berated the state government for not taking stern action against the accused, who had been roaming free till then.
Sensing the strict stance of the court, the CBI took Sengar into custody early on Friday morning and kept on grilling him. But when the court came out with the clear order that the accused should be arrested and not merely be detained, the investigating agency arrested him.
Before this, a CBI team had gone to Unnao for an intensive investigation into the matter.
Interestingly, what the UP police could not do in the past 10 months, the CBI virtually did in 10 hours—by arresting the accused.