FIR against BJP MLA; Case handed over to CBI

LUCKNOW: After BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar cocked a snook at the Yogi Adityanath government by ignoring its advice to surrender before police and end the political embarrassment, the state government lodged a case of rape against Sengar but decided against arresting him and threw the ball in CBI’s court to which the case was transferred on Thursday.

With nearly a dozen Thakur MLAs of the BJP ganging up against it, the state government seemed wary of acting against Sengar ahead of elections to the UP Legislative Council later this month where BJP needs MLA votes to get its nine MLCs elected.

The UP government told the Allahabad High Court on Thursday that there was no adequate evidence in the rape case to arrest the MLA after the court pointedly asked if the police will arrest Sengar or not after booking him for rape as well as under the stringent POCSO Act. The HC said it may be constrained to observe in its order on Friday that law and order has collapsed in UP given the government’ stand on arresting the MLA.


Earlier in the day, UP’s principal secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar and DGP OP Singh in a press conference repeatedly referred to Sengar as ‘Mananiye Vidhayak Ji’ (respected MLA) and said the rape case as well as that of the custodial death of the victim’s father was being referred to CBI which will now take the call to arrest the MLA if it gets adequate evidence. The Samajwadi Party said Adityanath had lost all moral right to be the CM.

The decision of the Adityanath government against arresting the MLA despite all-out condemnation is also because the state BJP strongly believes the rape charge against him is a concocted one and the victim’s family has clear links with the SP, at least two senior BJP leaders in the state have told ET. Importantly, the MLA has so far not been made an accused in the case of assault on the victim’s father.


“It is a very important point that the victim did not name the MLA in her statement before a magistrate in the rape matter,” a senior BJP leader said. Kumar pointed to the same, saying “the victim not naming the MLA before court was a discrepancy though the victim now says she did not do so as she was scared.” DGP OP Singh said a FIR against the MLA was done “strictly as per the allegation of the victim which do not stand proved so far” and so the MLA deserved respect.

The SIT probe has shown that while the victim’s family lodged a complaint on June 12 last year about the girl disappearing on June 11 and an FIR was lodged against two persons, it was only on August 17 last year that the victim gave an application saying the MLA had raped her on June 4 that year.