Initial CBI probe indicates ‘intentional attempt’ The truck-car collision that has left the Unnao gang-rape complainant critically injured appears “an abnormal accident”, says CBI

The source said the agency — which has booked rape accused and axed BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar (in picture) for murder over the collision that killed three people — had questioned the truck’s driver Ashish Kumar Pal and cleaner Mohan Srivas on Thursday. PTI

Piyush Srivastava, TT, 2 August 2019, Lucknow: The truck-car collision that has left the Unnao gang-rape complainant critically injured appears “an abnormal accident” resulting from “an intentional attempt”, a CBI source told The Telegraph on Thursday quoting from preliminary official notes.

The source said the agency — which has booked rape accused and axed BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar for murder over the collision that killed three people — had questioned the truck’s driver Ashish Kumar Pal and cleaner Mohan Srivas on Thursday.

Pal was asked why he had swerved to the wrong side of the road at full speed right before the collision, and how long he had been driving the truck with its number plate blackened, the source said.

“Neither the driver nor the cleaner could give a clear or convincing reply to either question. It was clearly an abnormal accident that could have been avoided if it were not an intentional attempt to crush those in the car,” the source, who asked not to be identified, said.

He said the investigators’ day-to-day notes contained the expressions “abnormal accident” and “intentional attempt”.

Sunday’s collision between the truck and the car in which the young rape complainant was travelling had injured her and her lawyer grievously and killed two of her aunts and the car’s driver.

The woman remains on ventilator at King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, while the lawyer has been off life support for the past 24 hours, showing signs of recovery.

MLA Sengar, his brother Atul and four henchmen have been in jail custody since last year on the charge of gang-raping the young woman in 2017, while Atul and the henchmen are also accused of murdering her father in 2018.