New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said the Unnao rape survivor will not be airlifted to AIIMS in New Delhi after her family said she was unconscious and they want her treatment to continue in Lucknow. The court also ordered that the survivor's uncle, who is jailed in Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, be shifted to Tihar Jail in the national capital immediately.
The decision comes a day after the apex court set a 45-day deadline for trial in the five cases related to the Unnao rape survivor even as it directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete the probe in the woman’s accident case within a week. The court also directed the UP government to provide Rs 25 lakh to the survivor as interim compensation.
The apex court took note of a statement made by senior advocate V Giri that she is unconscious and on ventilator, and her family has expressed that she be treated at the Lucknow hospital for the time being. Giri is assisting the court as amicus curiae in the matter.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi accepted the suggestion and said the victim's family is at liberty to take a call on shifting her to AIIMS in Delhi from Lucknow.
The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, was informed that her lawyer, who was also injured in the accident, was taken off the ventilator but his condition is still critical.
The lawyer's father was indecisive on him being shifted to Delhi, the Supreme Court was informed.
The bench gave liberty to the family of the victim and the lawyer to approach the Supreme Court's secretary general at any point for shifting them to AIIMS in Delhi.
The woman, allegedly raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor, is battling for life after a truck rammed into the car she was travelling in with some family members and her lawyer. Two of her aunts died in the accident last Sunday. Her family alleges that the collision was a deliberate attempt to kill her by those close to the MLA.
The apex court also directed shifting of the rape victim's uncle, Mahesh Singh, from Raebareli jail to Tihar and deferred the matter for further order on Monday.
Mahesh Singh's wife was in the ill-fated car and had died in the accident. He participated in her cremation on Wednesday after the Allahabad High Court granted him parole for a day. He has been convicted in a 19-year-old case and sentenced to 10 years jail term on a case filed by Sengar's brother, Atul Singh.
The apex court also directed all media houses not to disclose the identity of the victim directly, indirectly, or in any manner. During the brief hearing, the UP government informed the bench that the interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh has already been released to the victim's family.
The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing in the rape case for Monday.
The bench on Thursday had directed that the trial in the main case relating to the rape will have to be completed within 45 days from its commencement.
Besides the main rape case and the accident case, the three other matters transferred to Delhi are the FIR lodged against survivor's father under Arms Act, his custodial death, and the gang-rape.
The court directed that the survivor, her mother, and other family members will be provided security by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and an officer of the level of commandant will file a compliance report forthwith.
A speeding truck had on Sunday hit the car in which the rape survivor was travelling, killing her two aunts and leaving her and a lawyer critically injured. He participated in her cremation on Wednesday after the Allahabad High Court granted him parole for a day.
The CBI, which has taken over the investigation into the road accident, has booked 10 people for murder, including BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was expelled today by the BJP and is already in jail, charged with the rape of the Unnao woman when she was a minor in 2017.
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