Unnao rape survivor airlifted to Delhi AIIMS

The Unnao rape survivor, who suffered critical injuries in a car-truck collision last week, was airlifted to New Delhi on Monday (August 5) evening following the Supreme Court directives in this regard.

She was airlifted in an air ambulance, which arrived at the Chaudhary Charan Singh airport from New Delhi earlier in the day, Lucknow District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said.

“Special arrangements had been made all through the nearly 15-km-long route passing through some busy areas of the state capital to allow the unhindered movement of the vehicle carrying the rape survivor from the hospital,” the DM said.

On the lawyer of the rape survivor who is also undergoing treatment in the hospital, he said that if the weather permits, the air ambulance will return in the night to take him to Delhi as well. Otherwise, he will be airlifted on Tuesday (August 6) morning.

Also read: Truck driver’s stories don’t add up in Unnao rape survivor’s accident

Earlier, the doctors attending the rape survivor at the trauma centre had said that she was “critical and stable”. “The condition of rape survivor is improving. She is following command and opened eyes and understanding things. The process of removing the ventilator has started but she has to be given medicines to maintain her blood pressure,” Trauma Centre in-charge Dr Sandeep Tiwari said.

The rape survivor’s lawyer is breathing without a ventilator but his condition is not improving and he is still in “deep coma”, he said, adding that the condition of both was “serious, but stable”.

The rape victim and her lawyer suffered critical injuries on July 28 when the car, in which they and two others were travelling, was hit by a truck in Rae Bareli. Two of her relatives were killed in the accident.

Also read: As SC cracks whip, CBI zeroes in on Unnao mishap spot for clues

The CBI, which has taken over the investigation into the road accident, has booked 10 people for murder, including Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is already in jail, charged with the rape of the Unnao woman in 2017 when she was a minor.

In New Delhi, a lawyer of the family had appeared before a bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose and said that the mother now wanted her injured daughter to be shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi for better care, as she was still critical.

The bench took note of the submissions of lawyer D Ramakrishna Reddy, appearing for the victim, and ordered that she be transferred from King George’s Medical University in Lucknow to AIIMS, Delhi.

Also read: How turncoats sully parties: Lessons from rape-accused Kuldeep Sengar