Unnao gangrape case: CBI tells court it will file chargesheet by Oct 10

The CBI on Monday told a Delhi court it would file by October 10 the charge sheet against three persons who allegedly gangraped the Unnao survivor in 2017 when she was a minor, said a lawyer. The case is different from the one in which expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar is facing trial for allegedly sexually assaulting the woman in 2017.

During in-camera proceedings, the probe agency told District Judge Dharmesh Sharma that the charge sheet was likely to be filed within the time allowed by the Supreme Court, the lawyer privy to the proceedings said.

The apex court had on September 25 granted two more weeks to the CBI to complete its probe in the case.

The court has put up the matter for further proceedings on October 10.

The woman was allegedly raped by Sengar and three others — Shubham Singh, Naresh Tiwari and Brajesh Singh Yadav— in two different incidents in 2017, when she was a minor.

The court had earlier asked the agency to file a charge sheet at the earliest possible as per the directions of the top court.

The counsel for the accused, Sunil Pratap Singh, had earlier claimed that it was becoming a never ending process as more than 16 months have lapsed since the case was handed over to the CBI.

He had said the CBI was delaying the investigation, seeking more time from the court to complete its probe whenever the matter came up for hearing.

Advocate Vijay Pratap Singh, appearing for one of the accused, had said that the gangrape case was handed over to the CBI along with the other three related cases, transferred to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh on the top court's directions, at the same time in 2018.

"While charge sheet was filed in the other three cases by June 2018, the gangrape case was still pending investigation despite the Allahabad High Court's 2018 directions to complete it within two months," he had told the court.

The court had earlier framed charges against Sengar and co-accused Shashi Singh in the rape case.