Unnao rape survivor accident: Court seeks reply of woman, accused on 'dilution' of charges claim

A Delhi court Monday sought response of the Unnao rape survivor and the accused on a plea of the woman's counsel claiming the CBI has "diluted" charges against expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and nine others in the accident case in which she was severely injured and her two aunts killed.

District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, during in-camera proceedings, issued notice to the woman and the 10 accused in the case and directed them to file their reply by January 14, said a lawyer privy to the matter.

The counsel for the rape survivor and her family claimed that the CBI has "diluted" the charges against Sengar and nine other associates in their first charge sheet filed in the Unnao rape survivor accident case.

The probe agency has dropped murder charges against Sengar and his associates.

In the first charge sheet filed before a special CBI court in Lucknow, the agency charged Sengar and all other accused named in the FIR under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation.

The FIR filed by the CBI had earlier booked Sengar and nine other associates for alleged criminal conspiracy, murder, attempt to murder and criminal intimidation.

The woman, allegedly raped by Sengar in 2017 when she was a minor, was severely injured when a truck rammed into the car in which she was travelling along with some family members and her lawyer in Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh on July 28 this year.

The woman and her family members are under CRPF security as per the apex court's orders.

Truck driver Ashish Kumar Pal has been charged under IPC sections related to causing death by negligence, causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others and rash driving or riding on a public way.

On the day of the accident, none of her security personnel of Uttar Pradesh Police were accompanying the woman. They were later suspended.

Two days after the accident, the CBI on July 30 booked Sengar, his brother Manoj Singh Sengar, Arun Singh, son-in-law of a Uttar Pradesh minister along with seven others.