The Supreme Court has issued a notice on a criminal SLP that challenged three orders of the Allahabad High Court granting bail to five people last year, who were accused of murdering a rape victim in Unnao.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Rajesh Bindal passed this order on Monday on the SLP moved by complainant in the case, Anil.
The High Court had granted bail to three of the five accused (Umesh Kumar Bajpai, Ram Kishor Trivedi, and Hari Shanker Trivedi) in May 2022.
The accused were arrested for allegedly setting afire a rape victim in Unnao in 2019.
In June 2022, accused Shubham Trivedi was also granted bail by the High Court.
The 23-year-old woman had lodged an FIR in March, 2019, after the intervention of a local court. The FIR alleged that Shivam had brought her to Rae Bareli under the pretext of providing employment and raped her in 2017 by giving false assurance of marriage.
The woman further accused Shivam and his cousin Shubham Trivedi of raping her in December, 2018. The FIR was registered for the offence of gangrape under Section 376D of the Indian Penal Code.
Soon after the registration of FIR, police arrested Shivam. However, he was granted bail on November 30, 2019.
In December, 2019, Shivam, along with four other accused, allegedly attacked the victim and burnt her by pouring petrol while she was going to catch a train for Rai Bareli in early hours to follow her case.
The SLP alleged that the accused and their associates were pressurising the victim and her family members to make a compromise and settlement regarding the gangrape FIR, which was not agreed by the victim.
In order to take revenge, all five accused burnt the victim by pouring petrol on her.
The petitioner was represented by Advocates Prafful Kumar Behera, Piyali Sarkar, Rajendra Verma, Vikrant Nehra, Monish Rana and Chetan Rana, along with Advocate-on-Record (AOR) S.S. Nehra.
(Case title: Anil vs The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr)