The Unnao rape survivor, who met with an accident on Sunday, had written a letter to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi days earlier alleging some people had come to her house and threatened her
“…Take action against those who are making threats… people came to my house and threatened to take back cases, otherwise whole family will be put in jail in fake cases”, the survivor wrote on July 12.
The survivor had earlier accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her and the case is in courts with the MLA lodged in a jail.
The survivor’s mother had also complained about the threats to Uttar Pradesh police on July 13. In a registered letter sent to Unnao police, the mother mentioned two instances in which unidentified people threatened them. She wrote that she feared for her family.
She had accused the MLA of using his influence to harass her family even while he was in jail.
On July 28, days after the two letter were written, the car in which the woman, her family and a lawyer were travelling was hit by a speeding truck in Rae Bareli on Sunday, killing two members while leaving her and the advocate critically injured.
Sengar, is an influential leader in the Bangarmau constituency, and the survivor’s family battled for a year before he was named in a police case for the rape. On April 8, 2018, the survivor attempted to immolate herself outside the residence of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to draw attention to the case.
The following day, her father was allegedly assaulted by Sengar’s brother and his accomplices in police custody, leading to fatal injuries. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe indicted the MLA and several people connected to him of attempts to frame the survivor’s family in order to pressure her to drop the case.
A witness in the assault, Mohammed Yunus, died a few months later. Sengar has been in prison since outrage over the case grew and federal investigators stepped in.
