Teen who accused Indian legislator of rape seriously injured in ‘suspicious’ crash

An Indian teenager who accused a lawmaker of rape in 2017 has been seriously injured in a ‘suspicious’ car crash that killed two of her relatives, her family said. It’s the third fatal incident since the case came to light.

The Uttar Pradesh girl accused the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her, and tried to self-immolate outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence to bring attention to her case. Sengar, a member of the Legislative Assembly, has been charged with criminal conspiracy, abduction of minor, rape, and threat and is currently in jail.

The teenager was travelling with her family and her lawyer on Sunday when their vehicle was hit by a speeding truck in Rae Bareli. Her aunt and her sister were killed in the collision and she was critically injured. 

The truck involved in the crash had a blackened number plate, images shared on social media show. The truck driver fled the scene but he was later caught, and was the owner of the truck. 

Police have confirmed that the security detail the family had been provided with was not with the girl at the time of the accident. “The reason behind it is being probed,” Lucknow Police Director General Rajeev Krishna said. He suggested that the family may have asked the security detail not to accompany them as there was no room in the car. 

The girl’s mother has accused Sengar of being behind the crash, saying that he “might be in jail but he has a phone,” and “commands his goons from inside prison.”

“We want justice. Whenever we used to go to court, [he] would threaten to kill us and look it has now happened,” she added.

Sunday’s crash is the latest deadly incident to occur to witnesses or the teenager’s family since the rape was revealed. In 2018, her father died after he was beaten by Sengar’s brother and his aides. He was jailed on alleged false charges after the beating and died in jail. 

Yunus Khan, a witness to the father’s death, died in 2018. Congress President Rahul Gandhi and others said his mysterious death & hurried burial without an autopsy suggested conspiracy.  

Opposition politicians expressed frustration at the latest incident on social media and demanded answers. 

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