Unnao Rape Case: Sordid story of trauma; here is what has happened so far

The incident of a truck ramming into car in which 19-year-old Unnao rape survivor, her two aunts and lawyer were travelling has grabbed the headlines since Sunday. The victim and her lawyer are both admitted in a hospital in Lucknow and are in critical condition, while her two aunts died in the accident.

Victim’s family and leaders of the opposition have alleged that the main rape accused, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar planned the “accident.” Meanwhile, cases have been registered against Kuldeep Sengar and 29 others.

Kuldeep Sengar has been in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since 2018.

Here's a timeline of Unnao Rape Case so far:

June 4, 2017: 17-year-old girl is raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar at his residence in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao on promise of getting her a job.

June 11, 2017: The teenage girl goes missing and her family members files a police complaint.

June 20, 2017: The girl is found in a village in Aurraiya and she is brought back to Unnao.

June 22, 2017: The rape survivor alleges that the local police has stopped her from naming the BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in her statement.

July 3, 2017: The girl moves to Delhi to her uncle’s place and claims that she was harassed by the police. Victim’s family dispatches a letter to the Chief Minister demanding registration of a first information report against Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brother Atul Singh.

February 24, 2018: The girl’s mother moves the court demanding that names of Kuldeep Sengar and his brother be included in the FIR.

April 3, 2018: Victim’s father is brutally thrashed by the MLA’s brother, Atul Singh Sengar. Police complaint is filed after which, AK Singh, the father was sent to jail on April 4 in regard to an Arms Act case.

April 8, 2018: Case surfaces after the survivor and her family try to immolate herself outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence, alleging no action of police against the accused. The family alleged that the woman was raped by the MLA and his accomplices in 2017. The kin also said that the family was thrashed after a complaint was filed with the police in this regard.

April 9, 2018: Victim’s father dies in judicial custody due to alleged police torture.

April 10, 2018: Atul Singh Sengar, MLA’s brother, was arrested along with four others, by the UP Crime Branch, for allegedly thrashing the girl’s father. Atul was arrested under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the IPC.

April 11, 2018: The girl was made to appear before Rajiv Krishan, ADG of Police, Lucknow, who ordered a probe by the Lucknow police. Afterwards, a SIT was formed to probe the alleged rape case as well as the custodial death of the father.

Unnao police lodged 3 cases in the matter at the Makhi police station. Following a public uproar, the UP government transferred the investigation to the CBI.

July 7, 2018: In its first charge sheet in the case, the CBI charged five people, including Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s brother of murdering the rape survivor’s father.

July 11, 2018: In the rape case, CBI filed a charge sheet against Sengar and Shashi Singh while in the case of the rape victim’s father’s death, the agency filed a charge sheet against five people, including the MLA’s brother Jai Deep Singh.

July 13 2018: In the third case, agency filed a charge sheet against Kuldeep Singh Sengar and nine others for allegedly implicating the victim’s father in an Arms Act case. Three policemen, including Ashok Singh Bhaduria, then station officer of Makhi police station, were among those named in the charge sheet.

July 4, 2019: Uncle of the girl is convicted in a 19-year-old case of attempt to murder and sent to 10 years of imprisonment by a district court. The case was filed by Sengar’s brother, Atul Singh.

July 28, 2019: Victim and her lawyer were critically injured and two of her aunts were killed when the car in which they were travelling collided with a truck in Gurubakshganj area of Rae Bareli. One of the deceased aunts was a key witness in the case.

July 29, 2019: A fresh FIR is lodged against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar along with 29 others for criminal conspiracy to kill the survivor and eye-witness in a car accident.