Unnao gangrape: After death of key witness, his brother demands body exhumed for post-mortem

The Uttar Pradesh Police has yet again come under fire following the mysterious death of a key witness in the sensational Unnao gang-rape and murder case, involving BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar.

The Unnao Police which had tried to cover up victim’s gang-rape over a year ago in June, but had to register a case following court intervention and later lodged the father of victim in jail after BJP MLA’s brother Atul Singh Sengar and four others had badly assaulted him on April 4 this year.

The father of the victim had finally died on April 9 due to internal injuries in the police custody. A day before his death, the victim and her mother had tried to immolate themselves in in front of the Chief Minister’s residence in Lucknow on April 8 seeking his release from the police custody. 

When the news hogged media headlines, the Yogi Adityanath government was forced to order a CBI probe. The BJP MLA, his brother and others involved in the high-profile gang-rape and murder were arrested after the Allahabad High Court took suo motu notice and directed the CBI to arrest them.

The mysterious death of the key CBI witness has once again exposed chinks in the police role and of course callousness of the CBI and its shoddy investigation. Body of Yunus Khan, a key witness in brutal assault on victim’s father by BJP MLA’s brother and others, was found lying his house in Mohalla Sarai area in Maakhi village in Unnao district on August 18.

Yunus Khan used to live alone. He was running a small general merchant shop in his small dilapidated house. His body was found by his brother Jaan Mohammad when he visited him on August 18 early morning around 6 am. He was buried on the same day by his brother and relatives without informing the police, CBI or post mortem examination.

For next two days, neither Maakhi Police nor the CBI got to know that a key witness in the high-profile case has died under mysterious circumstances and his body buried without autopsy.

When victim’s uncle and other villagers raised doubts over Yunus Khan’s death, his brother Jaan Mohammad submitted a letter to Javed Ahmed, the SHO Makhi Police Station on August 21 requesting the police to exhume his body and get the post mortem done to clear mystery behind his death.

In his letter, Jaan Mohammad clearly mentioned that he found Yunus’s body lying alone in his house. “People were raising doubts over his death saying that he might have been conspired to be killed since he was a witness in the CBI case so I wrote to the SHO Maakhi to exhume the body and get the autopsy done to clear doubts,” stated Jaan Mohammad in his letter.

“When we inquired from the SHO Maakhi, Javed Ahmad denied that having received any letter from Yunus’ brother for digging the body for post mortem examination,” victim’s uncle (name not revealed) told the DNA.

To cover up the police lies, obviously at the behest of the BJP MLA’s men, who are openly threatening anyone giving statement to CBI, they forced Yunus’ second wife Sabeen Khatoon on August 23 to write a letter to the District Magistrate that her husband suffered from liver cirrhosis for long and died naturally. Sabeen said in the letter that she did not want the body to be exhumed and post mortem done.

That Sabeena wrote the letter two days after Yunus Khan’s brother Jaan Mohammad wrote to the SHO Maakhi for autopsy is in itself a big proof to nail Maakhi Police lies. Moreover, she was not living with Yunus for the past over one year and was not in the house at the time of his death is another point which reeks some foul play.

In her letter to the DM, she claimed that gang-rape victim’s uncle came to her residence on August 22 night and issued a threat on gun-point to sign a pre-typed letter for post mortem and put murder blame on BJP MLA and his men.

Intrerestingly, Sabeena Khatoon was not living with Yunus for the past over a year. “She was not there at time of Yunus’ death. As far my threat, I was not present in Maakhi and I have showed my GPS location to the Maakhi police,” victim’s uncle told DNA. 

The victim, her mother uncle and sister are provided heavy police security. “All my movements are with police but to be on the safe side I have also installed a GPS system to record my movements for fear of being killed by BJP MLA henchmen who continue to issue threat to us,” said victim’s uncle.

The deceased Yunus Khan had signed a six-page written statement to the CBI and had said that he would appear before the court whenever called to repeat his statement and describe how BJP MLA's brother Atul SIngh Sengar and four others had brutally assaulted victim's father. "Unlike others, who gave written statements under pressure from the CBI, he was the only one who had dared to appear in the court against the BJP MLA despite threats," said victim's uncle.  

While filing chargesheets against the BJP MLA, his brother and others, the CBI had told the Special CBI court that it has sufficient material evidences and witnesses to prove charges but it had not revealed the names of the witnesses telling the court that their security might be under threat.

When the journalists asked the Superintendent of Police Unnao Harish Kumar about conducting autopsy after request from family member, he also denied police receiving any such request. “We will surely exhume body and conduct autopsy if family members makes a request,” the SP told media.