Unnao Tragedy : CJI Seeks Report From SC Registry On Delay In Forwarding Letter By Rape Survivor's Family

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi is understood to have sought a report from the Supreme Court registry regarding the delay in forwarding the letter sent by family of Unnao rape survivor seeking protection from threat, reports The Telegraph.

As per the report, the letter sent on July 12 had not reached the office of CJI Gogoi until Tuesday afternoon.

Quoting sources, the report went on to state that the delay cannot be deliberate as the registry receives hundreds of letters addressed to CJI and other SC judges every day.

In the letter dated July 12, the rape survivor's family complained that they were facing threats and intimidation from henchmen engaged by the accused and pleaded for providing adequate security. The letter stated that it was annexing a video-recording of the criminal intimidation and the photographs of the aggressors.

On Sunday, a truck rammed into the car in which the rape survivor was travelling near Rae Bareilly , killing her two aunts and leaving her and her lawyer critically injured.

Delay in issuing notice to Sengar in transfer petition?

The report also suggested that the SC registry had delayed issuing notice to Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the petition filed by the rape survivor's mother seeking transfer of trial of the case from Unnao to Delhi citing intimidation from the accused.

The bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and Abdul Nazeer had issued notices to the CBI and 14 respondents, including the BJP MLA on April 16. 

In the normal course, the matter ought to have been listed after four or six weeks. But this case, it had not come up for hearing till date. 

The Supreme Court registry staff had not sent copies of the notice issued by the bench in April until June 28, the Telegraph report suggested.

Kuldeep Singh Sengar has been booked for murder and criminal conspiracy in connection with the accident, even as the victim battles for her life.

The allegation is that Sengar, a four-time MLA who represents Bangermau in the UP assembly, raped the teenage girl at his home in 2017. Sengar was arrested on April 13, 2018, after the rape survivor held protests outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in Lucknow.

 Before that, her father was arrested and sent to jail in connection with an Arms Act case and died in custody, allegedly due to torture. A key witness in the case died months later, under mysterious circumstances. The uncle of the survivor is lodged in jail, and the tragedy on Sunday happened when the survivor and family had gone to meet him.