Unnao rape survivor develops pneumonia, remains critical

Lucknow: The 19-year-old Unnao rape survivor, who is on ventilator support, remains critical as she has developed pneumonia, doctors attending to her at a hospital here said. Her lawyer has been taken off the ventilator, but he is still not out of danger.

Because of pneumonia, the rape survivor has also developed fever and is also being administered medication for controlling blood pressure. She is being given oxygen through a tube inserted in her windpipe, Trauma Centra in-charge Dr Sandeep Tiwari said.

Though the lawyer has been taken off the ventilator, but he is not out of danger as he suffered head injuries, the doctor said.

According to the Supreme Court's order, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have taken over the security of the survivor and her lawyer.

They have been deployed at the entry gate of the Critical Care Unit at the third floor of the Trauma Centre, where the survivor is undergoing treatment.

The CBI on Saturday questioned expelled BJP MLA and rape accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Sitapur jail in connection with the accident in which the survivor was critically injured along with her lawyer and her two aunts were killed, as the agency deputed several teams to speed up the probe.

The three-member CBI team grilled Sengar for several hours in Sitapur district jail, according to officials, days after the Supreme Court asked the agency not to take more than a fortnight to complete the investigation.

A CBI team visited the rape survivor's uncle, lodged in a Rae Bareli prison, on Friday. Later in the night, the Rae Bareli administration, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive, shifted the rape survivor's uncle to the Tihar jail in Delhi.

Another four-member CBI team visited the native village of the rape survivor in Unnao on Saturday.

According to the police station in-charge, Naradmuni, the team was in the village for hours and returned to Lucknow after conducting investigations.

No one from the survivor's family was present in the village at the time of the CBI team's visit, he said.

In Rae Bareli, a CBI team was busy probing the accident by recreating the sequence of events of the accident and also questioned the driver and the cleaner of the truck that had rammed into the car in which the survivor was travelling with her family members and lawyer.

Meanwhile, Sengar's arms licences for a single barrel gun, a rifle and a revolver were cancelled on Friday, some 15 months after he was arrested by the CBI on April 13, 2018, on charges of raping the woman in 2017 when she was a minor.

In more embarrassment for the ruling BJP in the case, party's Hardoi MLA Ashish Singh Ashu openly expressed sympathises with Sengar in his "difficult times".

A video clip, in which Ashu also wished that Sengar walks out of jail soon, went viral on news channels on Saturday.

The BJP, however, distanced itself from Ashu's remarks, saying the comments were made by him in his personal capacity.

"So far as the BJP is concerned, whatever disciplinary action it had to take, has been taken. Sengar has been expelled. Unless one is proved guilty, one is innocent in the eyes of the law. May be the MLA (Ashu) spoke on these lines," BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said.

The BJP expelled Sengar earlier this week amid growing public outrage.