It took widespread public outrage for the authorities to wake up to the tragic plight of the Unnao rape victim at the hands of a powerful ruling party politician whose word was law in the boondocks in Uttar Pradesh. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP MLA, was accused of raping the 17-year-old girl back in June 2017. A long-time tough of the area, Sengar was earlier a Samajwadi Party legislator before he switched sides on the eve of the Assembly poll. The police refused to register the FIR against him. Instead, it registered one against the victim’s father and locked him up in jail. He died while in judicial custody. A protest dharna outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence by the victim in April last year finally forced the police to register the charge-sheet against Sengar. However, even after the case was handed over to the CBI, little progress was made in investigations, though Sengar remained in a district jail following public hue and cry over his crime.
The case took another ugly turn last week when the rape victim was seriously injured and two of her aunts killed in a road accident. There was suspicion that the accident was a conspiracy to kill the rape victim. The truck involved has been impounded and its owner and driver taken into custody. The two were Samajwadi Party activists and close confidants of the main accused. Taking suo motu notice of the disturbing developments, especially after learning that the rape victim’s letter to the Chief Justice of India had not yet reached him, the top court had listed the case for an urgent hearing.
On Thursday, a bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi came down heavily on the authorities and passed a slew of orders. The court transferred all five cases registered in UP to the national capital; it asked the CBI to complete the probe into the suspicious road accident in seven days; the court directed the UP Government to pay an interim compensation of Rs 25 lakhs to the rape victim within the next twenty-four hours; the UP Government was also directed to provide round-the-clock security to the victim and her close relatives. Besides, it instituted an internal inquiry as to why the victim’s letter failed to reach the CJI, though it was with the court registry.
In short, the top court did everything in its power to try and ensure justice to the victim and her tormented family which has been living in fear of the goons of the MLA ever since the victim mustered the courage to lodge an FIR against him for the heinous crime. Hopefully, her bravery and courage would not go waste and the criminal politician and his henchmen would soon be given the sternest possible punishment permissible under law.
Having said that, the question is why did it take so long for the ruling party to expel Sengar? He was suspended immediately after the FIR was lodged early last year, but his continuance as a member was still a huge embarrassment for the party. Without doubt, Sengar’s winnability alone had led the BJP to nominate him for fighting the Assembly election in 2017, but is winning elections an end in itself? Does not the character and conduct of those who contest the polls on the party’s symbol matter any more for the party, which till only recently went around boasting to be ‘a party with a difference’.
Sengar has brought shame to the BJP. And the BJP leadership owes an apology to the voters. As it is, the way the party is set on expanding itself, admitting all comers regardless of their antecedents, sooner than later it is bound to become a mirror image of the Congress Party. The BJP leadership should pause and ponder whether the course it has adopted to bolster its numbers in the States and at the Centre undermines its core values and public image. Criminal politicians like Sengar are a blot on our politics. They need to be mercilessly weeded out of politics, their right place is in prison and not in State legislatures. Regretfully, with the saffron-clad Yogi Adityanand as chief minister, a criminal like Sengar conspired to defy the justice system after he had raped a minor girl and then terrorized her and her family. The apex court did well to restore a sense of dignity to the victims. This should serve as a lesson to the UP Government which was dragging its feet investigating the case against the MLA. There should be no mercy for Sengar and his ilk. Period.
- S Sadanand
