Unnao Rape Survivor Records Statement With Delhi Court In Hospital

After the Delhi High Court allowed trial court headed by special judge Dharmesh Sharma to hold proceedings of the Unnao rape case at AIIMS Hospital’s Trauma Center on Friday—a move considered unprecedented, the rape survivor recorded her statement with the judge on Wednesday. The survivor is getting treated at the hospital along with her lawyer after a road accident that happened in July.

Apart from her, the accused former BJP MLA Kuldip Singh Sengar along with his aid and co-accused in the murder case Shashi Singh also reached the hospital where a temporary court has been set up for day-to-day trial proceedings. The survivor recorded her statement in the ‘in-camera’ proceeding format which isn’t open for either the public or the press.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma reaches AIIMS Trauma Centre for the Unnao rape case proceedings on Wednesday.
• Rape survivor was brought in on a stretcher inside the hall for recording her statement in the trial court judge. 
• Accused former BJP MLA Kuldip Singh Sengar was also brought in at the temporary court set up in the hospital along with co-accused and accomplice, Shashi Singh.
• Judge ensured that the survivor does not come face to face with the accused persons. 

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On September 7, special judge Sharma had directed for a temporary court to be set up at the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre, AIIMS where the survivor is admitted. The court decided that the deposition by the survivor shall not be recorded in any form whether audio or video and ordered the Medical Superintendent to switch the CCTV cameras in the seminal hall off while the proceeding goes on. It also ensured that the survivor doesn’t have to come face to face with the accused.

“The survivor shall be brought on a stretcher/trolley and shall be stationed at the right side of the dais in the seminar hall so that she faces the court and not the counsel for the parties. The proceedings shall be 'In Camera' and no other public person shall be allowed to enter into the seminar hall/court without the permission of this court,” it had said.

In addition to the rape charges, Sengar will also reportedly be tried for murder charges in the road accident case that happened on July 28 when the survivor along with her lawyer and two aunts were on their way from Unnao to Rae Bareli when a lorry struck her car and both her aunts were killed in the accident. The accident left her and her lawyer critically injured. Her uncle, who is in Rae Bareli prison in an allegedly false case filed by Sengar, filed a complaint against him for conspiring to kill the survivor and her family through the accident.

“The survivor shall be brought on a stretcher/trolley and shall be stationed at the right side of the dais in the seminar hall so that she faces the court and not the counsel for the parties. The proceedings shall be 'In Camera' and no other public person shall be allowed to enter into the seminar hall/court without the permission of this court”

Before recording her statement with the trial court, the survivor recorded her statement with the CBI on Monday. On August 19, Supreme Court had granted two more weeks to CBI to finish the investigation into the car crash case involving the rape survivor of Unnao, her lawyer and two of her aunts. The Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose also instructed the Uttar Pradesh government to award an interim compensation of five lakh rupees to the family of the survivor’s lawyer, Mahendra Singh, to meet his medical expenses.

ALSO READ: Unnao Rape: SC Gives CBI Two More Weeks To Probe Accident Case

The SC in August directed that the case be shifted out of Uttar Pradesh to Delhi after the UP govt. failed to take immediate cognizance and action in it.

The teenage survivor in 2018 accused former BJP MLA Kuldip Singh Sengar of raping her twice in 2017. The came grabbed national headlines after the survivor and her family tried to commit suicide outside UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s house in 2018. After the protest, the girl’s father was reportedly beaten to death by Sengar’s aids. Sengar, who has been arrested last year, has been booked under sections 120b, 363, 366, 109, 376 (i) and 3 and 4 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) of the Indian Penal Code.

Picture credit- PTI