NEW DELHI, DEC 16
The Tiz Hazari court in Delhi convicted the expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger in the Unnao rape case. The court delivered the judgment in the evening convicting him for raping a woman in Unnao in the year 2017 when she was a minor.
The court acquitted the other accused in the case, Shashi Singh. The charges were framed 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 Act. Arguments on the quantum of Sengar’s sentence will be held on Wednesday.
District Judge Dharmesh Sharma had reserved his judgment on December 10 after hearing the arguments of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the MLA’s lawyer. The proceedings were held in-camera. The judge heard the case on a daily basis from August 5 after it was transferred from a court in Lucknow to Delhi on the Supreme Court’s directions.
There are multiple cases in connection with the woman and the crimes allegedly committed against her.
In July, the complainant was involved in a car crash in which two aunts, one who was a crucial witness in the rape case, were killed. The complainant and her lawyer were also severely injured, and the family had alleged Sengar was behind the car crash. There is a case of conspiracy currently ongoing in this regard.
The woman’s father had also been arrested in an illegal arms case, in which he had allegedly been framed, in April 2018. He died in judicial custody a few days later and a murder case was filed against Sengar, his brother and nine others.
There is also a separate gang-rape case involving the complainant and Sengar that is ongoing.
Moments after a Delhi court here convicted expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case, he broke down while his sister and children expressed displeasure over the verdict.
Family members and relatives of Sengar flocked outside the courtroom when the judgment was pronounced.
