Unnao rape accused MLA's aide 'bribes' cop, police probe video

The Uttar Pradesh police ordered a probe on Friday (August 2) after a policeman posted at the Sitapur jail, where rape accused MLA Kuldeep Sengar is lodged, was seen in a video allegedly being bribed by a person considered close to the legislator.

Sengar, accused of raping a minor girl from Unnao two years ago and killing two members of her family, was expelled from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday.

“I have not seen the video but it has come to our knowledge. We will get the matter probed and strict action will be taken. If policemen are found guilty, they will be dismissed,” Director General (DG), Prisons, Anand Kumar said here.

In the video, the policeman is seen allegedly being bribed by a man wearing kurta-pyjama outside the Sitapur jail. The man in the video, Rinku Shukla, a panchayat member of Unnao, told reporters that he was not bribing the policeman to meet Sengar, the Bangermau MLA.

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“It is my habit. I might have given money to him (policeman) for having tea as he was standing there. My intention was not to bribe him. I met Sengar inside the jail 10-15 days ago,” he said. Asked why he went to meet Sengar in jail, Shukla said, “I met him because he is our MLA. I am not in the BJP.”

In another part of the video, a motorcycle-borne man is heard asking someone to arrange a meeting with the MLA and being told “there is pressure”.

Sengar’s incarceration in the Sitapur jail hogged media headlines recently when BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj paid a visit to the prison to thank him after the Lok Sabha election. “He is in jail for a long time. Sengar is one of the most popular lawmakers, so I came to thank him after the election,” the MP had told reporters after meeting the jailed MLA in June.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its chargesheet filed against Sengar in July last year, had booked him under sections 120B, 363, 366, 376(1), 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as also under the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act. The central probe agency had arrested Sengar in April last year.

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On June 4, 2017, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped by the MLA at his residence in Unnao, where she had gone seeking a job.

When the family of the girl went to lodge a complaint, her father was instead booked by the police under the Arms Act on April 3, 2018 and put into jail two days later. He later died in a hospital, with the post-mortem report mentioning serious injuries on his body.

On Monday night, the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government recommended a CBI probe into a car crash that occurred in Rae Bareli the previous day, in which the rape survivor, now 19 years of age, and her lawyer were seriously injured and two of her aunts killed.

The family of the rape survivor has alleged that Sengar was behind the accident. The CBI has booked the MLA and nine others on murder charge.