New Delhi - India's Supreme Court on
Thursday moved the rape trial of a powerful regional politician
to the capital, New Delhi, to allay fears he could influence the
outcome, a further embarrassment for the Hindu nationalist
ruling party.
Federal police opened a murder investigation this week
against Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a legislator from northern Uttar
Pradesh state, after a truck crashed into the car of the young
woman who accuses him of rape. Two of her relatives were killed
in the crash on Sunday and she is fighting for her life in
hospital.
He denies the rape and any involvement in the car crash.
The case has led to anger at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also controls the regional
government in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.
Opposition groups accused the party of protecting Sengar.
The party expelled Sengar on Thursday, a decision taken by
its national leadership, led by Modi's close aide Amit Shah,
BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit said in a statement late on Thursday.
The Supreme Court directed that the case be moved out of
Uttar Pradesh, and that the investigation into the car crash
should be completed within seven days.
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi set a 45-day deadline to resolve
the rape case, which has made little progress in Uttar Pradesh.
He ordered the Uttar Pradesh state government to pay the accuser
interim compensation of 2.5 million rupees ($36,200).
Sengar's lawyer Awadhesh Singh told Reuters he would fight
the case wherever it was being heard: "We were fighting here,
and we will continue to fight there also."
Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a legislator of Uttar Pradesh state from India's ruling BJP, reacts as he leaves a court after he was arrested in connection with the rape of a teenager. File picture: Pawan Kumar/Reuters
The case was thrust into the spotlight last year when the
accuser, who was a teenager in 2017 when she says she was raped,
tried to kill herself, accusing the police of inaction.
People shout slogans as they carry an effigy depicting Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a legislator of the ruling BJP, during a protest demanding justice for a woman who is fighting a rape case against the legislator in Kolkata. Picture: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
The main opposition Congress party said the decision to move
the case out of Uttar Pradesh points to a dire law-and-order
situation under the state's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a
monk-turned-politician who says crime has fallen on his watch.
"The Supreme Court's order is proof that Adityanath's
government is neither able to maintain law and order, nor punish
criminals," a Congress spokesman, Randeep Singh Surjewala, said
on Twitter.