The Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday charged the uncle of the Unnao rape complainant with forgery, The Indian Express reported. The uncle is presently serving a 10-year jail term in an attempt to murder case from 2000.

The police alleged that the accused made changes to a copy of a court judgement using a whitener. The Unnao police had filed the case in March this year.

“The case dates back to June, 2000 when the uncle and his two brothers, including the rape victim’s father, were booked in an attempt to murder case,” sub-inspector Amar Singh, the investigating officer in the case, said. “The case was lodged at a local police station in Unnao. A year after the arrest, the uncle was released on bail.” However, the accused jumped bail.

In 2002, the others accused in the attempt to murder case were acquitted, Singh said. They have since died.

In November 2018, the police arrested the uncle in Delhi and booked him under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. However, the man told the court that he was not an accused in the 2000 attempt to murder case.

“He submitted a copy of the 2002 court judgement, which mentioned another name in place of the uncle’s,” Singh alleged. “A whitener was used to erase his name and replace it with another one.” The police then filed a first information report based on the testimony of a court record keeper.

The rape and car crash cases

The complainant in the Unnao rape case was injured in a car crash on July 28, and is at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in a critical condition. Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and the three other men had allegedly raped the complainant, who was then a minor, on two occasions in 2017. Sengar, who was expelled from the BJP on August 1, has been in jail since April 2018.

The Supreme Court had on August 19 ordered the CBI to finish the investigation in the car crash case within two weeks. Meanwhile, the Delhi court said that a strict view will be taken against authorities concerned if the medical superintendent of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences did not submit a report about the condition of the complainant.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had transferred four cases – the rape case, the Arms Act case against the woman’s father, his death in police custody, and the gangrape – out of Uttar Pradesh. On August 22, a policeman from Uttar Pradesh, Amir Khan, filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the framing of charges against him for alleged involvement in the murder of the woman’s father.

On Monday, a court in Delhi granted the CBI time till September 9 to finish its inquiry and file a status report in the gangrape case.

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