Unnao rape case: No money to fight, will try crowdfunding, says girl’s family

LUCKNOW: The family of the Unnao rape survivor, who has been booked for cheating and forgery months after CBI charged BJP’s Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her, said they didn’t have the means to fight the case as there is no earning male member in the family at the moment.
On December 23, UP Police lodged a case of forgery and cheating against the survivor on court order after husband of Shashi Singh, the co-accused in the rape case, filed a petition saying she had forged documents specifying her age.
“Our father died in judicial custody and uncle Mahesh was arrested last month in a separate case. The only male member at home is my 5-years-old brother,” the survivor’s sister told TOI.
“We all are unlettered, unemployed and have no idea on how to fight this case,” she added The FIR was registered on the complaint of Shashi’s husband Haripal who said that the girl was not abducted on June 11,2017 by his son Shubham as claimed by her but had eloped with one Awadhesh and had forged her date of birth certificate by forging signatures of the headmaster of a Rae Bareli school.
The family said that the education of all kids has been stopped due to scarcity of funds.
“Besides, there is fear of stepping outside home. We don’t venture out too much,” the survivor’s sister said.
“We don’t have the funds to fight the case. But we will fight it out by taking recourse to crowdfunding or approaching Supreme Court,” she said.
The family claimed that no one from UP Police has approached them so far over the fresh FIR in which the girl’s uncle and mother are also named.
The survivor had approached UP Police with two cases, one involving her alleged abduction by three men that included Shubham, son of Shashi and Haripal Singh on June 11, 2017 and alleged rape by BJP’s Bangarmau MLA Kuldeep Sengar on June 4, 2017.
While UP Police had registered only the abduction case last year, the CBI registered two separate cases this year after a furore over her immolation bid and her father’s death and subsequently submitted chargesheets in August.