Unnao case: Truck owner reiterates number plates blackened to avoid seizure

The owner of the truck that hit the car in which the Unnao rape survivor was travelling in Rae Bareli last Sunday reiterated that he blackened the registration plates of the vehicle to dodge the financer, which had issued him a notice with regards loan instalments. The owner, Devender Kishore Pal, was summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday.

The non-banking finance company-- Orix Leasing and Financial Services Limited -- on Saturday had, however, denied having threatened to seize the truck or issued any seizure notice in the past.

Pal told the CBI sleuths that he did not know expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar at all. “We have nothing to do with the MLA as well as the Unnao case. It was an accident,” he told the CBI officials.

As far as the number plates were concerned, Pal said he had blackened them to avoid seizure of the vehicle as instalments were due. “I have the notices sent to me and I have shown them to the officials,” he said.

Truck driver Ashish Kumar also said the same. During his interrogation by the police and the CBI, he said, “The registration number plates were blackened by the owner and I was asked to keep it like that for at least 10-15 days to dodge the financers.”

Meanwhile, Ritesh Kumar Singh, senior officer of Orix Leasing and Financial Services Limited, a Mumbai-based non-banking finance company, said, “Notice given to the owner was not a seizure notice. He had deposited two instalments and two are pending.” He said there were set procedures for seizing a vehicle.

While the Unnao rape survivor – who had accused Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her in 2017 -- and her lawyer were critically injured in last Sunday’s accident, her two aunts were killed in the crash that the woman’s family alleged was a “conspiracy” to eliminate them.