Former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar convicted in rape and kidnap of Unnao teenager

New Delhi: Delhi’s Tis Hazari court on Monday convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar for kidnapping and rape of minor girl in Unnao in 2017. The court, however, has acquitted another accused Shashi Singh.  The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on December 19.

Soon after his conviction by a Delhi court on Monday in Unnao rape case, expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar broke down in the courtroom. He was seen crying beside his sister.

Sengar, a four-time BJP MLA from UP's Bangermau, was expelled from the BJP in August 2019.

The court had on August 9 framed charges against the MLA and Singh under Sections 120 b (criminal conspiracy), 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping or inducing a woman to compel for marriage), 376 (rape) and other relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The offences entail maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

District Judge Dharmesh Sharma heard the case on a day-to-day basis from August 5 after it was transferred to Delhi from a court in Lucknow on Supreme Court's directions.

On July 28 this year, the car of the survivor was hit by a truck and she was severely injured. The woman's two aunts were killed in the accident and her family had alleged foul play.

Her father was allegedly framed in an illegal arms case and arrested on April 3, 2018. He died while in judicial custody a few days later, on April 9. The local court here has framed murder and other charges against the MLA, his brother Atul and nine others in the case.

The apex court, taking cognisance of the rape survivor's letter written to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, had on August 1 transferred all five cases registered in connection with the Unnao rape incident from a Lucknow court in Uttar Pradesh to the court in Delhi with directions to hold trial on daily basis and completing it within 45-days.

The trial in the other four cases — framing of the rape survivor's father in illegal firearms case and his death in judicial custody, conspiracy of Sengar with others in the accident case and a separate case of gangrape of the rape survivor by three others — are ongoing in the court.

During the trial in the rape case which was held in-camera, thirteen prosecution witnesses and nine defence witnesses were examined. The mother of the rape survivor and her uncle were the main witnesses in the case.

A special court was also held at AIIMS hospital in Delhi to record the statement of the rape survivor, who was admitted there after she was air-lifted from a hospital in Lucknow.

(with PTI inputs)