The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday asked a Delhi court for 10 more days’ time to file a chargesheet in a separate gangrape case filed by a woman who Unnao legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar had raped, PTI reported.

District judge Dharmesh Sharma asked the CBI to complete its inquiry as soon as possible and file the chargesheet. The Supreme Court on September 6 had given the CBI two weeks to file the chargesheet in the case.

Advocate Sunil Pratap Singh, counsel for the accused, opposed the CBI’s request, saying that the agency had been looking into the case for 16 months and the process was becoming “never ending”. “Be that as it may, this court cannot ask the CBI to file a chargesheet, and it is clear that as and when investigation is complete, it would be in the discretion of the CBI to file it,” PTI reported the court as saying. “It is, however, desirable that the chargesheet be filed at the earliest possible in the letter and spirit of the directions of the Supreme Court.”

Sengar has been in jail since April 2018 in connection with the rape allegations against him. The gangrape case is separate, when the complainant was allegedly raped in another instance by Sengar and three others – Shubham Singh, Naresh Tiwari and Brajesh Singh Yadav.

The complainant is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. On July 28, she was severely injured in a car collision while she was on her way to a hearing in Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh. Two of her aunts, one of whom was a key witness in the rape case, were killed. Her lawyer was also severely injured.

On Thursday, the Delhi court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to file a report on the possible measures that can be taken to relocate the Unnao rape complainant and her family to a safe place in the state or in a neighbouring state. The court’s direction came after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a threat perception report and said the complainant and her family members face a “Category-A” threat – which is the highest threat level.

The woman and her family have said that the car crash she was injured in was orchestrated by Sengar. A separate case has been filed in the matter and an investigation is under way. Sengar is an accused in the case. Apart from the that and the gangrape case, the Delhi trial court is also hearing the rape case, a false Arms Act case filed against the woman’s father, and one on his death in police custody.