The Supreme Court on August 1 transferred five cases of crimes committed against the Unnao rape survivor and her family from a CBI court in Lucknow to its counterpart in Delhi and ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to pay her ₹25 lakh as interim compensation.
Here is a timeline of the events:
2017
June 4: The 17-year-old goes missing from her village, Mankhi in Uttar Pradesh (UP). She was allegedly gang-raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother Atul Singh and their accomplices. A missing person complaint is filed by her family members.
June 21: She is found in Aurraiya.
June 22: A case is registered under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a woman to compel her for marriage) of the Indian Penal Code.
2018
April 3: Her father is thrashed by the legislator’s brother Atul Sengar and his accomplices. Though both sides lodge complaints against each other, the police choose to arrest only her father and he is sent to judicial custody.
April 8: The survivor tries to set herself ablaze near Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence in Lucknow to protest alleged police inaction against Sengar. She says her family had been threatened.
April 9: Her father dies in police custody. The post-mortem report lists the cause of death to be “blood poisoning due to perforation of colon”. It also lists multiple injuries on his body.
April 11: The survivor and her family are confined to a hotel room on the pretext of protection, without water or electricity.
Acting on a request by senior advocate Gopal S. Chaturvedi for a court-monitored probe, the Allahabad High Court admits his letter as a public interest litigation plea.
April 12: Sengar, Atul Singh and their accomplices are arrested by the CBI.
April 13: Facing severe flak over the delay in taking action against Sengar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath says his government has not deviated from its zero-tolerance policy on crime and that it will firmly deal with criminals, no matter how influential they might be.
April 14: The CBI makes a second arrest in the Unnao rape case . It takes into custody the woman who allegedly took the girl to Sengar on the day of the crime.
2019
July 2: The uncle of the survivor is convicted in a 19-year-old case of attempt to murder that had been filed by Atul Singh. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison by a district court.
July 28: A Rae Bareli truck-car collision leaves the girl and her lawyer critically injured. Two of the victim’s aunts are killed in the accident. The victim, who is battling for her life in a hospital in Lucknow with multiple fractures, head and chest injuries, and her lawyer are on ventilator support.
August 1: BJP Uttar Pradesh president Swatantra Dev Singh says Sengar was expelled by the central leadership of the party after he was suspended by the State unit.
August 2: The Supreme Court transfers five cases of crimes committed against the rape survivor and her family from a CBI court in Lucknow to its counterpart in Delhi and orders the State government to pay her ₹25 lakh as interim compensation.
Four of these cases include the rape of the minor on June 4, 2017; a false case hoisted against her father under the Arms Act by conniving police officers; the custodial death of her father, who was beaten up before being taken into custody; and a second instance of gang rape of the survivor within a week of the first one on June 11, 2017.
