Lucknow: A key witness in the Unnao rape case, who died on August 18 and was buried without informing the CBI which is investigating the case, has turned into a major controversy.

The gangrape victim’s family has demanded that the body of the key witness, identified as Yunus, should be exhumed for a post-mortem.

The family has alleged that it was BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s men who had approached the key witness to weaken the entire case.

The matter came to light after the rape victim’s uncle submitted a letter to Unnao SP in which he raised the possibility of Yunus being poisoned and demanded exhumation of his body for the autopsy.

According to a report, the Maki police station SHO said that Yunus died of a prolonged illness.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is in Germany, took to Twitter and cited a news report that the witness “died under mysterious circumstances” and was “buried hurriedly without getting his post-mortem done”.

“The mysterious death & hurried burial without an autopsy, of the key witness in the #Unnao rape & murder case, involving BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar, smells of a conspiracy. Is this your idea of ‘justice for our daughters’, Mr 56?,” Mr Gandhi wrote in comments while re-tweeting the story.

The deceased, Yunus, was a key witness in the case in which the rape survivor’s father was allegedly assaulted and later succumbed to his injuries in the custody of local Maki police station on April 9, 2018.

The BJP MLA is the main accused in the case and was taken into custody in April after the investigations were handed over to the CBI.