CBI to quiz truck driver and cleaner in Unnao case

A court here on Saturday remanded to three days CBI custody the driver and the cleaner of the truck involved in the accident of the Unnao rape survivor and her family on July 28.

The CBI will quiz driver Ashish Kumar Pal and cleaner Mohan for three days to unearth the conspiracy behind the accident. Based on their statements, the investigating agency will decide its next move.

The CBI is also likely to approach the court seeking permission for the custodial interrogation of expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and others in the case.

On July 28, the rape survivor, who had accused Sengar of raping her in 2017, was travelling to Rae Bareli with her lawyer Mahendra Singh and two aunts when a truck being driven on the wrong side hit them.

While the girl and her lawyer were critically injured, her two aunts − one of whom was a witness to the crime − were killed in the accident.

Earlier today, the Unnao District Magistrate ordered cancellation of Sengar’s arms licenses. Sengar owned a single-barrel gun, a rifle and a revolver. Licences for all three have been cancelled.

The CBI had on Friday urged the top court not to transfer the accident case related to the Unnao rape to Delhi as an arrested accused had to be presented before a Judicial Magistrate in Lucknow.

Accepting the agency’s submission, the top court postponed transferring of the accident case to Delhi for 15 days.

In a new twist to the sensational Unnao truck collision case, the financer of the truck has now revealed that his company had never threatened the truck owner Devender Kishore Pal to seize the financed vehicle. Pal had earlier given a statement to the police that the number plate of the truck, involved in the crash with the car carrying the Unnao rape victim, her lawyer and family members, was blackened to avoid forcible seizure of the vehicle by its financer.

Pal had said he had missed a few instalments of the loan and had therefore blackened the number plate, apprehending that the vehicle would be seized anytime.

He had asserted that blackening of the number plate of the truck was nowhere a part of premeditated plan to crush victim’s car.

However in a new twist, the revelations of the financer stand contrary to truck owner’s earlier statement. The victim’s family had claimed in the FIR that the accident in which two witnesses of the rape case died, was a murder attempt engineered by expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, accused in gangrape case.

Talking to the IANS over phone from Kanpur, the Manager of the Orix finance company, Shashi Kumar said that he had never threatened Devender Pal Singh regarding non-payment of monthly installments.

“In fact, I met Devender, near a dhabha in Fatehpur around 25-26 June last, and requested him to pay his dues at the earliest. We had a very cordial meeting. Our company, Orix, is one of the largest finance companies ( in the world headquartered in Japan) and has a regional office at Kanpur.

“We have written legal agreements with our clients and never intend to forcibly seize any financed vehicle,” said Shashi Kumar.

Regarding Devender Kishore’s statement that the truck’s number plate was blackened due to persistent attempts to seize the vehicle by the financer, the Manager at Orix said that he cannot draw any inference from Pal’s statement but can assure that the company has never seized any vehicle plying on the road.

“The installment was Rs 80,000 plus per month which Devender had been paying. However he skipped the installments for the past few months. Let me clarify, he has been our client for several years.

“We have even given NOCs for some of the vehicles financed by us to Devender,” he added.

The financed company’s revelations confront Pal’s statement and adds more mystery to the accident dubbed as a planned murder conspiracy. According to an officer of the CBI, investigating the case, the different versions relating to the finance of the vehicle would be probed threadbare.

“If there were no past incident of lifting vehicles on non payment of loan installment by Oris, then Devender’s statement becomes more important. If there was no pressure from the Oris management, then why did he (Pal) blacken the truck’s number plate prior to the accident.

“It’s a question which begs a straight answer,” said a police officer of Rae Bareli, earlier involved in the initial investigation of the case.

Indo-Asian News Service