Kuldeep Singh Sengar has been pronounced guilty by a Delhi Court today (16th Dec 2019) for raping a minor in 2017 in Unnao. However, the court found that the co-accused Shashi Singh is not guilty in the case and was acquitted. The quantum of Sengar’s punishment will be decided on the 18th of December.
Dharmesh Sharma, District and Session Judge, last week reserved the judgement on the case last week saying Unnao Rape Case Verdict will be given this week. The case was transferred from a Lucknow court after the Supreme Court’s instruction and Judge Sharma, from 5th of August, was hearing the case on day to day basis.
The Court said “Sengar was a powerful person, the victim was a village girl, not from a cosmopolitan educated area which led to delay in filing case. I found her statement truthful, unblemished that she was sexually assaulted and under threat”.
The Court also referred to battle that the victim has been fighting, and said that we saw numerous cases were filed against her family members as she wrote to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The court pointed out that the CBI should be more disciplined as there was a delay in filing the charge sheet in the case which extended the trial trial against Sengar.
Judge Sharma convicted Sengar for rape under IPC and POCSO Act for the offence of public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child.
The offence comes with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The Supreme Court asked the Delhi Court to wrap up the trial in no longer than 45 days.
The girl, who is now 19, was allegedly kidnapped and then raped in 2017 by Former BJP MLA Sengar and was arrested in April 2018 only after the girl threatened to light herself on fire in front of Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s residence in Lucknow if police delays filing a complaint any further.
Sengar has been a MLA from Bangermau, Uttar Pradesh 4 times, and was expelled from the party in August this year.
This year on 28th of July, the victim’s car was hit by a truck and she was severely injured and two of her aunts succumbed to their injuries and died in the accident, the victim had to be later airlifted from a hospital in Lucknow to AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) Hospital, Delhi, where a special court session took place to record her statement.
On 3rd April 2018, the girl’s father was allegedly framed in a case of illegal arms and arrested, 6 days later he died in judicial custody. A local court then put frame and other charges on Sengar, his brother Atul and 9 more people in the murder case.
As the girl started receiving threats by Sengar she wrote a letter to then CJI (Chief Justice of India) Ranjan Gogoi. It was only after the accident incident that it was found that the letter was written and was lost in the paper works and never reached CJI, however later the case was then shifted out of Uttar Pradesh.
During the trail in the rape case, 13 prosecution and 9 defence witnesses were examined, the girl’s mother and uncle were the main witness in this case.
As the girl was airlifted from the Lucknow hospital following the car accident to AIIMS Hospital in Delhi, a special court session was held to record her statement.
The court had booked Sengar and Singh under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping or inducing a woman to compel for marriage), 376 (rape) and some more applicable sections on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
