Unnao rape survivor airlifted to AIIMS; condition still critical

The 19-year-old Unnao rape survivor, who was critically injured in a road accident last week, was flown to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre in Delhi from Lucknow on Monday night for better treatment.

“We had been informed about her arrival. Adequate arrangements have been in the hospital for her as her condition is delicate,” a doctor in the hospital said on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had ordered immediate airlifting of the woman after her lawyer RK Reddy sought to move her out of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow. Reddy mentioned the matter for direction after the bench had adjourned the case for further hearing to Friday as no one on behalf of the survivor’s family appeared to seek her transfer.

Reddy informed the court that the women’s mother was keen to shift her to AIIMS for better care as she was still critical and suffering from pneumonia. While according the permission, the bench also made it clear that the family of the injured lawyer can also ask for a similar relief.

The woman, who has accused expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar of raping her in 2017, was critically injured when the car she was travelling in was hit by a truck in Rae Bareli on July 28. Her lawyer, who was accompanying her in the car, too, was severely injured while her two aunts died in the accident.

A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation that is probing the case took Sengar and co-accused Sashi Singh from Sitapur jail for hearing in Tis Hazari court, New Delhi on Monday, after which they were kept in Tihar jail.

The top court had last week transferred the trial in the Unnao rape case to Delhi and directed to complete it within 45-days.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi also ordered the payment of Rs 25 lakh as interim compensation to the victim. The accident case would remain in Lucknow and the CBI was directed to complete the probe within seven days.

Kuldeep Sengar has been named as an accused in the accident case as well. Sengar has been in jail since last year after the Allahabad High Court in April 2018 ordered his arrest for raping the woman in 2017. The high court also transferred the investigation of the case to the CBI.

Earlier on Monday, an ambulance left KGMU Trauma Centre around 6.30 pm via a “congestion free green corridor” made from KGMU to the Lucknow airport.

“Intensivist Dr Ram Gopal of the KGMU accompanied the patient till New Delhi along with a medical team in the air ambulance,” said Dr Sandip Tiwari, head of the trauma surgery , KGMU.

The Delhi Traffic Police provided a green corridor to the ambulance that carried the rape survivor to AIIMS Trauma Centre from the Delhi airport.

In the morning medical bulletin, KGMU doctors said condition of the rape survivor was critical but stable. They said there had been slight improvement in her condition as she opened her eyes and followed instructions from the medical staff. “She was able to understand instructions. Also, as fever that had troubled her in the past two days, was no more troubling her, we made attempts to bring her out of the ventilator support,” said Dr Tiwari.

The rape survivor’s lawyer is currently undergoing treatment in the same critical care unit of the KGMU Trauma Centre, where the survivor was admitted till Monday evening.