A Lucknow court yesterday sent a Bharatiya Janata party legislator to seven days’ police custody after he was arrested for allegedly raping a teenager.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought a 14-day remand of BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar but the court only allowed a week-long remand. The agency earlier got Sengar’s medical examination done here.
Sengar, the lawmaker from Unnao’s Bangamau, however continued to claim that he was innocent and told reporters before he was taken to the court that he had full faith in God and the judiciary.
He is accused of raping the 17-year-old girl and conspiring to kill her father, who died of injuries he sustained during a brutal assault in police custody by Sengar’s brother and some aides.
Sengar was arrested by the CBI on Friday after a day-long interrogation. He was also confronted with some facts by the agency.
A woman, identified as Shashi Singh, who is accused of taking the girl to the legislator has also been arrested. Three cases have been filed against the legislator under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
Earlier, the victim, who along with her mother and uncle, were brought to Lucknow under tight security in the morning, underwent tests at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
The victim later told reporters that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on Thursday that the guilty will be brought to book was very reassuring and that she now hoped that justice will be done in her case. She also said that the arrest of the legislator was a positive development.
She also thanked the media and the CBI for taking up her battle that so far was a “lonely and losing battle”.
However, her uncle accused the Unnao administration of conniving to save the legislator.
The victim was later taken to the CBI’s zonal office where a detailed statement from her is likely to be recorded.
The girl tried to set herself ablaze outside Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence last Sunday, claiming no action had been taken in the rape case that took place in 2017.
Later that day, her father was picked up by the police and allegedly beaten up in custody by the legislator’s brother Atul Singh and his aides, following which he died in hospital.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti yesterday sacked four policemen accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua district.
The chief minister also wrote to the chief justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, seeking a fast track court to conclude within 90 days the trial in the case that has caused outrage, including by the UN secretary general. 
The girl belonging to a nomadic Muslim community was allegedly raped by six men who, according to police, held her captive in a village temple in the Kathua for a week. She was drugged, repeatedly raped and bludgeoned to death.
“I think we’ve seen the media reports of this horrific case, of the abuse and the murder of a young girl,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at his daily press briefing in New York on Friday.
“We very much hope that the authorities will bring the perpetrators to justice so they can be held accountable for the murder of this young girl,” Dujjaric said while responding to a question about the secretary general’s response to the rape and murder of the girl.
A special team of the Jammu and Kashmir police has arrested eight people including a couple of policemen who have been charged with destroying evidence. The incident made headlines after Hindu radical groups in the Jammu area protested the arrest of the accused, who are Hindus, and local lawyers tried to stop police from filing charges.
Several local BJP leaders and at least two ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir coalition government with the regional People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were part of the protests.
Forests Minister Lal Singh and Industries Minister Chandar Prakash Ganga were forced to resign after they had joined the Jammu protest.


Ex-bank officer charged for offensive post


Police in Kerala yesterday said they have registered a case against a former bank officer for offensive social media posts against the eight-year-old Kathua rape and murder victim. The former Kotak Mahindra Bank officer, Vishnu Nandakumar, was sacked on Wednesday for posting the comments, a police officer said. In his post in Malayalam, Nandakumar justified the killing of the girl. He said it was good that she was killed otherwise she would have turned into a future human bomb and grown up to be a terrorist. It caused a huge outcry with many writing to the bank against Nandakumar. The bank on Friday said his services were terminated on Wednesday due to poor performance. It also condemned its former employee’s social media post. “Since he has been charged under a non-bailable offence, he will be arrested. The probe has begun and appropriate actions will follow,” said the police officer on condition of anonymity.