Unnao Rape Survivor Airlifted To AIIMS
NEW DELHI : The Unnao rape survivor, who was admitted to a Lucknow hospital with critical injuries after the car she, her family and her lawyer were travelling in was rammed by a truck with blackened number plates, has been airlifted to AIIMS in Delhi, after the Supreme Court’s order today.
Uttar Pradesh police created a nearly 15-kilometre-long green corridor (a stretch of road free of traffic) to transport her from the trauma centre to the airport.
The Supreme Court had initially deferred the decision on moving the rape survivor to Friday, after the girl’s family said they had not reached a consensus on the matter. Soon after, however, the family’s lawyer, D Ramakrishna Reddy, appeared before a bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose and said the mother wanted her daughter to be shifted to AIIMS.
Earlier today doctors at the King George’s Medical University in Lucknow said the rape survivor’s condition was “improving” and that the process of taking her off the ventilator had begun.
“The Unnao rape survivor (is) conscious… improving. She is following instructions and her eyes are open. Her fever has lessened. The process of taking her off ventilator has started. Blood pressure continues to be a concern,” a letter released by the hospital said.
The top court’s notification to shift the survivor came after her doctors, on Saturday, described her condition as “critical but stable”. The doctors also said she had contracted pneumonia.
The lawyer — admitted to the same hospital as the rape survivor — has been taken off the ventilator but is still in a deep coma. He will also be airlifted to AIIMS, either later today or tomorrow.
The 19-year-old woman, who has accused expelled BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her at his residence in 2017, was travelling with her advocate and two aunts on July 28 when their car was hit by a speeding truck in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli district. Two of her aunts – one of whom was a witness to the rape – died in the accident, which many claim was orchestrated by the politician and his brother – Atul – to get back at the rape survivor.
The CBI, which has been spurred into action by the Supreme Court’s deadline, has conducted raids across 17 places in Uttar Pradesh. A team has also gone to Sitapur Jail, where Kuldeep Sengar has been lodged for a year, to check visitors’ records.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi accepted the suggestion and said the victim’s family is at liberty to take a call on shifting her to AIIMS in Delhi from Lucknow.
The lawyer’s father was indecisive on him being shifted to Delhi, the Supreme Court was informed. The bench gave liberty to the family of the victim and the lawyer to approach the Supreme Court’s secretary general at any point for shifting them to AIIMS in Delhi.
The CBI, which has taken over the investigation into the road accident, has booked 10 people for murder, including BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was expelled today by the BJP and is already in jail, charged with the rape of the Unnao woman when she was a minor in 2017.(With Agency Inputs ).
