Unnao rape: An incident that triggered national outrage

The Unnao rape incident, in which the muscleman BJP legislator Kuldeep Senger was the prime accused, had triggered nationwide outrage and come as a huge embarrassment to the Yogi Adityanath government.

The incident, that took place last year, had also exposed the nexus between the police and politicians after it turned out that the cops had sided with the ruling party MLA and implicated the victim's family members in false cases.

The victim, a resident of Makhi in Unnao district, about 60 kilometres from here, had alleged Senger and his goons had gang-raped her after she visited his house to plead for a job.

The victim attempted to commit self-immolation near Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's official residence in protest against the alleged failure of the police to act against the lawmaker. She was prevented from setting herself ablaze by the alert cops in the nick of time.

''The MLA threatened me with dire consequences if I approached the cops,'' she had alleged. Senger, however, had refuted the charges and termed them a ''political conspiracy''.

The case took a twist after the father of the victim died in jail under mysterious circumstances a few days later. The victim's father, who had been thrashed by Senger's brother and goons inside the police station after the family dared to lodge a complaint of rape, was arrested on a petty charge and sent to jail.

The case was later handed over to the CBI.