Unnao rape victim develops pneumonia, remains critical: Docs

The Unnao rape victim, who was injured in a road crash, has developed pneumonia and remains in a critical condition, doctors attending to her at a hospital in Lucknow said on Saturday.

The 19-year-old is still on life support but her lawyer, who too was injured when their car was hit by a truck in Rae Bareli district on July 27, is breathing without ventilator, King George's Medical University Trauma Centre incharge Sandeep Tiwari said.

Because of pneumonia, she has fever and is also being given medication to control her blood pressure, Tiwari said.

She is being given oxygen through a tube inserted in the windpipe. Her condition is stable but not out of danger, he said.

The lawyer has suffered injuries in his head and cannot be described as out of danger, Tiwari said, adding KGMU is fully equipped to provide best treatment to the two patients.

The woman and her lawyer are under round-the-clock observation, doctors said.

The Supreme Court will pass orders on Monday whether the woman should be moved to AIIMS hospital in Delhi for better treatment.

She and her lawyer suffered critical injuries in the truck-car crash; her two aunts were killed. One of the aunts was a witness to the rape of the woman in 2017 when she was a minor.

The rape victim's family has filed a complaint alleging conspiracy behind the crash.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has taken over the investigation into car crash as well as the rape cases, on Saturday quizzed Sengar, who is lodged in a prison in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district.

A three-member team of the central investigation agency visited the Sitapur district jail and questioned the Bangermau MLA for several hours.

On Friday, the CBI had questioned the 19-year-old Unnao rape survivor's uncle in a Rae Bareli prison.

Later in the night, the Rae Bareli administration, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive, shifted the rape survivor's uncle to the Tihar jail in Delhi. He is serving a 10-year sentence in a two-decade-old case filed by Sengar's brother Atul Singh.

In Rae Bareli, the CBI team was busy probing the accident, which left the rape survivor critically injured, by recreating the sequence of events.

The agency also questioned the driver and the cleaner of the truck that rammed into the survivor's car on July 28.

The CBI had booked 10 people, including BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar, for murder.

Sengar is also charged with the rape of the woman.

After the opposition accused the BJP of shielding its lawmaker, the ruling party expelled Sengar on Thursday.